Relevance of MICA Alleles Matching Rate and Posttransplant Rejection in Clinical LRD Organ Transplantations

Objective: Recipients usually undergo posttransplant rejection in HLA-identical transplantations. Recent studies have shown that MHC class I related chain A (MICA) has been found to be associated with allograft survival. The goal of this study is to investigate the correlation between matching rate of MICA alleles and posttransplant rejection in clinical living related donor transplantation (LRD) organ transplantations. Methods: Twenty pairs of blood samples were detected for HLA/MICA matching through polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers and for anti-MICA Abs using Luminex. At the same time, pathologic biopsies of all recipients were diagnosed and classified into different levels by the unified standard. Univariate Spearman’s analysis was established. Log-Rank analysis was performed twice, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were generated to assess the relationship between MICA matching rates and posttransplant rejection in living-related donor transplantations. Results-The result showed that HLA matching of all recipients and donors were identical, whereas MICA matching was not. There was statistical difference between pathological classification and survival (P < 0.05). The development of Abs to MICA was strongly associated with posttransplant rejection. Conclusions: Recipients with higher MICA matching rates with their donors had lower pathologic classifications and were more likely to survive longer. Lower graft survival and more rejection episodes were observed among recipients with lower MICA matching rates with donors. Aside from HLA matching, the MICA matching rate could be an important prognostic index for LRD transplantations.