Pancreas-specific protein. New serum marker for graft rejection in pancreas-transplant recipients.

A radioimmunoassay for a novel human pancreatic protein (pancreas-specific protein, PASP) has been developed. We studied the possibility that serum PASP levels reflect pancreas-graft rejections in human pancreas-transplant recipients. Ten patients subjected to combined pancreas-kidney transplantation and 4 patients subjected to pancreas transplantation alone were studied. Twelve kidney recipients served as control subjects. On several occasions, PASP levels were elevated at kidney rejections in patients with combined pancreas-kidney grafts and then decreased after antirejection therapy, although no other indications for concomitant pancreas-graft rejection were at hand. In the recipients of pancreas grafts alone, PASP levels increased before or at the same time as graft rejections were indicated by current methods. In two cases of chronic graft rejection, PASP rose to high levels long before hyperglycemia occurred. In the control group of kidney-graft recipients, PASP levels were stable and were not affected by high serum creatinine levels, kidney-rejection episodes, or antirejection therapy. This study indicates that PASP may be a good serum marker for pancreas-graft rejection.