Antibodies against donor antigens on endothelial cells and monocytes in eluates of rejected kidney allografts.

Acidic eluates from two rejected kidney allografts contained antibodies reacting only with the endothelial cells and the monocytes of the specific kidney donors. No reaction was observed with the B-cells or the T-cells of these donors. When these eluates were tested against the leukocytes of healthy blood donors that were typed for HLA-A, -B, -C and DR, positive reactions were observed with the monocyte but not with the lymphocyte fraction. The first eluate reacted with 6.4% of the donors and the second eluate with 38.3%. No correlation with any of the HLA-A, -B, -C or DR antigens was found. If a more extended study proves that the endothelial-monocyte antigens do play an important role in kidney transplantation, matching of donors and recipients for these antigens and cross-matching recipient serum with donor monocytes may become a necessity in the future.