Absence of significant overlap in transcriptional patterns between operationally tolerant liver and kidney recipients

Transplant recipients spontaneously accepting their grafts in the absence of immunosuppression demonstrate the feasibility of attaining allograft tolerance in humans. Previous studies have identified blood transcriptional and cell phenotypic markers specific for either liver or kidney tolerant recipients, but the two settings have not been directly compared yet employing the same platforms. To identify potential similarities in immune parameters between recipients tolerant to different organs, we analyzed blood samples from tolerant and non-tolerant liver and kidney recipients employing whole genome expression microarrays. Tolerant and non-tolerant liver and kidney recipients differed in their peripheral blood expression patterns, but no significant overlap was observed between the two datasets. This was confirmed at the functional level by employing gene set enrichment analysis.The lack of obvious similarities in immune parameters associated with liver and kidney tolerant recipients implies the involvement of different mechanisms in the two settings and argues against the existence of a common immunological constant of spontaneous operational tolerance in clinical transplantation.

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Lozano JJ, Pallier A, Martinez-Llordella M, Danger R, López M, Giral M, Londoño MC, Rimola A, Soulillou JP, Brouard S, Sánchez-Fueyo A