Transcriptomic profiling of circulating T follicular helper cells in kidney transplant recipients

We compared the transcriptomic profile between patients without donor-specific HLA antibodies (DSA-), patients with donor-specific HLA antibodies without antibody-mediated rejection (DSA+ ABMR-) and patients with donor-specific HLA antibodies and antibody-mediated rejection (DSA+ ABMR+). We found that patient with DSA+ ABMR+ had a distinct transcriptomic profile compared to DSA- and DSA+ ABMR-, characterized by upregulation of genes encoding for germinal center T follicular helper cells function, T-B cell interaction and costimulatory molecules. Overall design: We analysed N=3 samples per group of patients (DSA-, DSA+ABMR-, DSA+ ABMR+), without replicates