Background: IL-17 expression in kidney biopsies had been described as predictive of allograft rejection.
Methods: We tested the hypothesis that IL-17A ELISpot responses towards a pool of third party cells could predict acute rejections of kidney allografts. This assay determines alloresponses but does not require donor cells. IL-17A ELISpot assays were performed in 50 kidney transplant recipients prior to transplantation. Seventeen of the recipients suffered from acute allograft rejection.
Results: We observed that the amount of IL-17A producing T cells did not differ between transplant recipients with and without kidney allograft rejection, rebutting our hypothesis. Further, we found that the alloreactivity before transplantation correlated with the reaction against the mitogen phythohemagglutinin (r = 0.5, p = 0.0009).
Conclusions: IL-17A ELISpot was not predictive of acute kidney allografts rejection. But ELISpots after stimulation with allogeneic cells and phythohemagglutinin could similarly detect the "general" capacity of T cells to secrete IL-17A.