"Self-deficiency" leading to rejection after organ transplantation

The transplanted organ is recognized by the recipient's immune system as foreign or non-self, which leads to rejection of the organ

Natural killer cells play an important role in the human immune system because they are involved in identifying and killing harmful cells, such as tumor cells

In transplantation, the donor cells in the transplanted organ do not evade immune detection by reducing MHC expression, but the MHC protein expressed by these donor cells is different from that of the recipient

"This is exactly what we found in the study of 924 kidney transplants," said Maarten Naesens, MD, senior author at KU Leuven University in Belgium

"In addition, our research results prove the importance of these natural killer cells after transplantation and propose new methods to prevent or treat kidney transplant rejection," added Jasper Callemeyn, MD, lead author, also from KU Leuven

Jasper Callemeyn, Aleksandar Senev, Maarten Coemans, Evelyne Lerut, Ben Sprangers, Dirk Kuypers,, Alice Koenig, Olivier Thaunat, Marie-Paule Emonds, Maarten Naesens.