IMPACT OF THE MHC-ENCODED HLA-DMA, DMB, AND LMP2 GENE POLYMORPHISMS ON KIDNEY GRAFT OUTCOME

We previously studied the relationship between TAP1 and TAP2 gene poly morphism and compatibility in kidney graft outcome and reported that t he currently described TAP1 and TAP2 gene polymorphisms did not influe nce the incidence of acute rejection episodes. In this study, we repor t on the effect of polymorphism and matching of HLA-DMA, -DMB, and LMP 2 genes on kidney graft outcome. This study was performed on 102 selec ted kidney recipients who experienced two or more acute rejection epis odes (rejection group) during follow up and who were compared to a gro up of 150 patients who never had rejection (non rejection group). Alth ough a significant effect of HLA-DR matching was observed between thes e two groups, our data suggest that matching for all the new genes loc ated in the HLA class II region (TAP1, TAP2, LMP2, HLA-DMA and -DMB) d oes not influence the kidney graft outcome. However, a significant inc rease (pc < 0.05) of DMA0102 allele was observed in the recipients of the rejection group as compared to those of the non rejection group. This effect was not due to a linkage disequilibrium between DMA and HL A-DR loci and suggests that this specific HLA-DMA allele could play a role in the indirect pathway of class II presentation of donor antigen s. (C) American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 199 8. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.