Acute rejection of hepatic allografts from HLA-DR13 (allele DRB1*1301)-positive donors

Acute rejection of hepatics allografts does not show consistent association with the number of mismatches of HLA. classes I and II, Therefore, we inve stigated the relation between specific donor or recipient HLA antigens and the occurrence of acute rejection HLA typing of 35 liver transplant recipie nts and donors was performed by serological standard technique, with confir mation and subtyping by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific pr imers. HLA class I antigens were not associated with the occurrence of acut e rejection. The graft was positive for HLA-DR13 in 8 of 13 transplant reci pients (62%) with acute rejection, but only 4 of 22 recipients (18%; P = .0 24; PBonferroni-corrected = .33, not significant) without rejection. The gr aft was positive for DRB1*1301 in 7 of 13 recipients (54%) with acute rejec tion, but only 1 of 22 recipients (5%) without rejection (P = .002; PBonfer roni-corrected = .028). This patient had experienced long-lasting bacterial sepsis, which markedly reduced the risk for acute rejection. We speculate that the expression of donor DRB1*1301 (if mismatched) may increase the ris k for acute hepatic allograft rejection.