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Complement-binding antibodies in patients after organ transplantation and their clinical relevance
Kovandová, Barbora ; Slavčev, Antonij (advisor) ; Krulová, Magdaléna (referee)
The diagnosis of antibody-mediated rejection after liver transplantation is complicated, due to the fact that the clinical and pathological signs of this life- threatening complication are often overlapping with non-immunological symptoms, like biliary obstruction, ischemia, thrombosis and others. Furthermore, the transplanted liver is to a great extent resistant to this type of rejection. Like in the transplanted kidney and heart, the main pathological factors of graft injury are antibodies directed to the mismatched HLA antigens of the organ donor, i.e. donor- specific antibodies. Besides analysis of HLA specificity of antibodies, research lately has been directed to define whether these antibodies are complement-binding or not. Literature data on this are however up till now limited. Therefore, the aim of this diploma thesis was to study the clinical relevance of complement-binding antibodies against HLA antigens in patients after liver transplantation. Our preliminary results suggest that there might be a correlation between the presence of complement-binding antibodies and the development of antibody-mediated rejection. This finding may play a role for improvement of the prognosis of patients after liver transplantation. Key words HLA, antibodies, C4d, complement, liver transplantation
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