Impact of ABO incompatibility and early antibody-mediated rejection on chronic antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplant patients

Introduction: Early antibody-mediated rejection has been reported to increase chronic antibody-mediated rejection and decrease graft survival in kidney transplantation. However, the impact of early antibody-mediated rejection in ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation remains unclear.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed living-donor kidney transplantation patients from two Korean centers. Patients were categorized based on ABO compatibility and early antibody-mediated rejection within 1 year. The primary outcome was chronic antibody-mediated rejection. The secondary outcomes were production of de novo donor-specific antibody and composite kidney outcome, defined as graft loss or a decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate to below 30 mL/min/1.73 m².

Results: A total of 1639 patients were analyzed, including 1292 patients who underwent ABO-compatible kidney transplantation and 347 patients who underwent ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation. ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation had a lower risk of de novo donor-specific antibody production (hazard ratio [HR] 0.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.48-0.95) and chronic antibody-mediated rejection (HR 0.33, 95% CI 0.12-0.92) with a comparable risk of the composite kidney outcome (HR 1.06, 95% CI 0.71-1.59) compared to ABO-compatible kidney transplantation. When outcomes of ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation were analyzed according to early antibody-mediated rejection, ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation without antibody-mediated rejection had a lower risk of de novo donor-specific antibody production (HR 0.60, 95% CI 0.41-0.88) and chronic antibody-mediated rejection (HR 0.28, 95% CI 0.09-0.91) than ABO-compatible kidney transplantation without antibody-mediated rejection. However, ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation with antibody-mediated rejection showed a higher risk of de novo donor-specific antibody production and similar risk of chronic antibody-mediated rejection compared to ABO-compatible kidney transplantation without antibody-mediated rejection.

Conclusions: ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation showed a lower risk of de novo donor-specific antibody production and chronic antibody-mediated rejection compared to ABO-compatible kidney transplantation; however, early antibody-mediated rejection abrogated these beneficial effects of ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation.