The development and specificity of antiidiotypic antibodies in renal transplant recipients receiving single-donor blood transfusions.

Multiple pretransplant sera obtained from alloimmunized renal transplant recipients were tested for the presence of antiidiotypic-like antibodies (AB2) that inhibit donor-specific HLA antibodies in the microlymphocytotoxicity assay. Fourteen patients received repetitive single-donor blood transfusions (SDT). In this patient group, sera were collected prior to each blood transfusion and prior to transplantation. Three additional patients were studied in whom prior donor-specific HLA antibodies had been lost over a period of 6 months preceding transplantation. Donor-specific AB2-like antibodies were found in the sera of 13/14 SDT patients who did not develop HLA antibodies, and in the 3 patients who had lost donor-specific HLA antibodies. All patients had received prior random blood transfusions in the year preceding the study. Five (38%) of the SDT patients had detectable donor-specific AB2 prior to the initiation of single-donor blood transfusion, presumably related to previous blood transfusions. In the remaining six SDT patients in whom complete serum sets were available, AB2 always appeared after the first blood transfusion. The specificity of HLA antibodies inhibited by AB2 was studied, and antibodies against HLA-A, -B, -C, -DR, and DQw were all identified. Thus, there was no predilection for patients to develop AB2 against locus-specific HLA gene products. This study also confirms the apparent polymorphism of putative crossreactive idiotypes. Approximately 25% of donor-specific HLA antibodies were not inhibited by relevant AB2. This study confirms and extends previous observations that alloimmunization is associated in many patients with the development of antiidiotypic-like antibodies that are capable of inhibiting the binding and cytotoxicity of HLA alloantibodies.