Cytotoxic T-cell allotaxis in human kidney rejection

The purpose of this study was to characterize the mononuclear inflammatory cells infiltrating human renal allografts and to compare these to other lymphoid populations. Lymphocyte phenotypes were identified by immunohistochemical staining of frozen sections with murine monoclonal antibodies and heteroantisera to lymphocyte antigens. Lymph node and native kidney nephrectomies both had approximately equal numbers of B and T lymphocytes. The T lymphocytes were predominately T helper/inducer phenotype. In contrast, the three renal allografts had a predominance of T cells over B cells. Furthermore, the majority of the T cells were the cytotoxic/suppressor phenotype with a minority of T helper/inducer cells. In general, immunohistochemical studies of lymphocyte antigens should help further our understanding of the inflammatory response. In human transplantation, these technics should allow better differentiation of cellular rejection reactions from other kinds of cellular inflammatory reactions.