Research Group
- Prof. Jean-Paul P. Soulillou, Principal Investigator
- Dr Sophie Brouard, Research Associate
- Prof. Magali Giral, Clincal Coordination
- Dr Nicholas Degauque, Post-doctoral Fellow
- Dr Elise Chiffoleau, Collaborator
- Ms Annaick Pallier, Engineer
- Mr Richard Danger, PhD student
- Dr Karin Tarte, Collaborator
Location
- ITERT-INSERM U643, Nantes, France
Title
- The Role of B Cells in Patients Who Accept Their Kidney Graft without Any Treatment
In organ transplantation, allo-antibodies have been shown to be the hallmark of allograft loss. They have been shown to precede both cellular acute- and chronic-rejection. Nevertheless, several examples in the literature have shown that they are not always associated with histological evidence of antibody-mediated injury. Moreover, patients with episodes of rejection have evidence of B cell-infiltrate suggesting that B cell-activation may also contribute to graft injury by other mechanisms than direct antibody-mediated graft injury. As transplant recipients who permanently accept their grafts in the absence of immunosuppression rarely develop an allo-immune response and may not display an ‘optimal’ response to alloantigens, we hypothesized that regulation and/or control of this response may take place in these patients and that B cells could also play a role in establishing the process of tolerance. This study should help to understand how to manipulate B cells to improve long-term graft outcome.
Final report
