ATC Abstracts

American Transplant Congress abstracts

  • Home
  • Meetings Archive
    • 2022 American Transplant Congress
    • 2021 American Transplant Congress
    • 2020 American Transplant Congress
    • 2019 American Transplant Congress
    • 2018 American Transplant Congress
    • 2017 American Transplant Congress
    • 2016 American Transplant Congress
    • 2015 American Transplant Congress
    • 2013 American Transplant Congress
  • Keyword Index
  • Resources
    • 2021 Resources
    • 2016 Resources
      • 2016 Welcome Letter
      • ATC 2016 Program Planning Committees
      • ASTS Council 2015-2016
      • AST Board of Directors 2015-2016
    • 2015 Resources
      • 2015 Welcome Letter
      • ATC 2015 Program Planning Committees
      • ASTS Council 2014-2015
      • AST Board of Directors 2014-2015
      • 2015 Conference Schedule
  • Search

Ranking Eplet Mismatches as Predictors of Graft Failure

W. Zhang1, H. Mohammadhassanzadeh1, K. Oualkacha2, H. Gebel3, W. Klement4, R. Sapir-Pichhadze1

1McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, 2UQAM, Montreal, QC, Canada, 3Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, GA, 4Canadian Blood Services, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Meeting: 2020 American Transplant Congress

Abstract number: 449

Keywords: Epitopes, Graft failure, Immunogenicity, Kidney transplantation

Session Information

Session Name: Kidney Complications: Immune Mediated Late Graft Failure

Session Type: Oral Abstract Session

Date: Saturday, May 30, 2020

Session Time: 3:15pm-4:45pm

 Presentation Time: 3:15pm-3:27pm

Location: Virtual

*Purpose: Donor:recipient matching at the level of sequence defined HLA targets (eplets) is being promoted as a biologically sound strategy to prevent graft failure. Because eplet mismatches may differ in immunogenicity, this study sought to distinguish how specific eplet mismatches relate to death-censored graft failure. This area has been under-studied due to the high dimensionality and complex relatedness of HLA genes.

*Methods: We studied a cohort of 118 382 unsensitized US first kidney transplant recipients (2000 to 2015) from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). Allele-level donor:recipient HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1 and -DQB1 genotypes were imputed by an algorithm from the National Marrow Donor Program. HLA genotypes were converted to epitypes with 449 potential eplets considered. We applied Lasso penalized Cox regression to 70% of the cohort to select eplet mismatches significantly associated with death-censored graft failure. To verify that eplet mismatches identified by the Lasso penalized Cox regression analysis are predictive of transplant outcomes, we fit, in the remaining cohort (30%), Cox proportional hazard models and estimated hazard ratios (HR) of death-censored graft failure. Models were adjusted for clinically relevant recipient, donor and transplant characteristics. P-value < 0.05 was deemed statistically significant.

*Results: The penalized Cox regression model analysis identified 52 unique eplet mismatches that were common to all training subsets of the cohort. Of those, 25 were statistically significantly associated with death-censored graft failure in Cox proportional hazard models. These particular eplets can be mapped to both class I (C1) and class II (C2) HLA loci and include antibody-verified (abv) and non-antibody-verified (oth) mismatches (Table 1).

*Conclusions: Evidence to date linked cumulative eplet mismatch loads with transplant outcomes. Our analysis of the SRTR was able to distinguish specific eplet mismatches associated with an increased risk of graft failure. Validation in other datasets, will support prioritizing donor:recipient matching on these eplets to achieve superior kidney transplant outcomes.

 border=

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Zhang W, Mohammadhassanzadeh H, Oualkacha K, Gebel H, Klement W, Sapir-Pichhadze R. Ranking Eplet Mismatches as Predictors of Graft Failure [abstract]. Am J Transplant. 2020; 20 (suppl 3). https://atcmeetingabstracts.com/abstract/ranking-eplet-mismatches-as-predictors-of-graft-failure/. Accessed May 9, 2025.

« Back to 2020 American Transplant Congress

Visit Our Partner Sites

American Transplant Congress (ATC)

Visit the official site for the American Transplant Congress »

American Journal of Transplantation

The official publication for the American Society of Transplantation (AST) and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) »

American Society of Transplantation (AST)

An organization of more than 3000 professionals dedicated to advancing the field of transplantation. »

American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS)

The society represents approximately 1,800 professionals dedicated to excellence in transplantation surgery. »

Copyright © 2013-2025 by American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Cookie Preferences