Gene expression after liver transplantation

The purpose of this study was to validate differentially expressed immune system related genes described in previous studies that identified tolerant LTx recipients after immunosuppressive drug (IS) weaning. Blood was collected of tolerant LTx recipients (TOL), a control group of LTx recipients with regular IS regimen (CTRL), a group of LTx recipients with minimal IS regimen (MIN) and healthy controls (HC), and groups were matched on age, sex, primary disease, time after LTx, and cytomegalovirus serostatus after LTx. Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction was used to determine expression of twenty selected genes and transcript variants in PBMCs. In conclusion, we found confounding effects of IS regimen and prior cytomegalovirus infection, on peripheral blood expression of several selected genes that were described as tolerance-associated genes by previous studies. 4 study groups; in total 52 study samples analyzed in triplicate