Humoral rejection is refractory to conventional high-dose corticosteroid pulse therapy and invariably requires the addition of depleting antibodies, either polyclonal antilymphocyte agents or OKT3.

Disclosure: Flavio Vincenti, MD, has disclosed that he has received grants for clinical research and educational activities from Roche, Novartis, Wyeth-Ayerst, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Fujisawa.

Since its first description by Ehrlich in the late 1890s and subsequent characterization by Bordet, the complement cascade has been thought to have important and varied roles in the immune response.

Complement degradation product C4d has become an important marker of humoral or antibody-mediated rejection in renal and heart allograft biopsies. Although there have been several reports on the ...

A research study at the University of Chicago has found that in pregnancy, while the T cell response to a fetus becomes tolerant to allow for successful pregnancy, the part of the immune system that ...

The causes and clinical course of acute rejection vary, and it is not possible to predict graft outcome reliably on the basis of available clinical, pathological, and genetic markers. We hypothesized ...

IN recent months it has become increasingly evident that humoral antibodies as well as cellular immune mechanisms sometimes play an active part in the rejection of human kidney transplants. Several ...