Donor-Specific Anti-HLA Antibodies After Bone-Graft Transplantation. Impact on a Subsequent Renal Transplantation: A Case Report

Immunological evaluation by panel-reactive antibody (PRA) and determination of anti-HLA specificity are important phases in the evaluation of patients awaiting kidney transplantation. The main causes of immunization are previous solid organ transplantation, hemotransfusion, and pregnancy. It is also possible that immunogenicity can be triggered by vascularized tissue grafts. Immune induction by cryopreserved bone prostheses is not yet understood. A 19-year-old patient with osteosarcoma had undergone resection of the left proximal tibia with reconstruction using human bone in 1997. The donor HLA typing was as follows: A3, A29 (19); B44 (12), Bw4; DR13 (6), DR7, DR52, DR53. The patient was subsequently enrolled onto the waiting list for cadaveric donor kidney transplantation due to chronic kidney failure caused by cisplatin toxicity. Pretransplantation immunological screening using the complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) technique revealed a PRA of 63%. IgG antibody specificities were detected against class I and class II donor antigens, specifically anti-A3, B44, DR7 antibodies, using flow cytometry (Tepnel Luminex). Further immunological studies using single HLA specificity analysis (LSA Class I°–II°, Tepnel-Luminex) showed direct antibodies against all donor antigen specificities. This case showed immune induction after the implantation of bone prosthesis in a kidney transplant candidate, underlining the importance of the availability of HLA typing data of donors of a human prosthesis.