The Efficacy of Rabbit Anti-Thymocyte Globulin for Acute Kidney Transplant Rejection in Patients Using Calcineurin Inhibitor and Mycophenolate Mofetil-Based Immunosuppressive Therapy

BACKGROUND T cell depleting antibody therapy with rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (rATG) is the treatment of choice for glucocorticoid-resistant acute kidney allograft rejection (AR) and is used as first-line therapy in severe AR. Almost all studies investigating the effectiveness of rATG for this indication were conducted at the time when cyclosporine A and azathioprine were the standard of care. Here, the long-term outcome of rATG for AR in patients using the current standard immunosuppressive therapy (i.e., tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil) is described. MATERIAL AND METHODS Between 2002 to 2012, 108 patients were treated with rATG for AR. Data on kidney function in the year following rATG and long-term outcomes were collected. RESULTS Overall survival after rATG was comparable to overall survival of all kidney transplantation patients (P=0.10). Serum creatinine 1 year after rATG was 179 µmol/L (interquartile range (IQR) 136-234 µmol/L) and was comparable to baseline serum creatinine (P=0.22). Early AR showed better allograft survival than late AR (P=0.0007). In addition, 1 year after AR, serum creatinine was lower in early AR (157 mol/L; IQR 131-203) compared to late AR (216 mol/L; IQR 165-269; P<0.05). The Banff grade of rejection, kidney function at the moment of rejection, and reason for rATG (severe or glucocorticoid resistant AR) did not influence the allograft survival. CONCLUSIONS Treatment of AR with rATG is effective in patients using current standard immunosuppressive therapy, even in patients with poor allograft function. Early identification of AR followed by T cell depleting treatment leads to better allograft outcomes

The Efficacy of Rabbit Anti-Thymocyte Globulin for Acute Kidney Transplant Rejection in Patients Using Calcineurin Inhibitor and Mycophenolate Mofetil-Based Immunosuppressive Therapy

BACKGROUND T cell depleting antibody therapy with rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (rATG) is the treatment of choice for glucocorticoid-resistant acute kidney allograft rejection (AR) and is used as first-line therapy in severe AR. Almost all studies investigating the effectiveness of rATG for this indication were conducted at the time when cyclosporine A and azathioprine were the standard of care. Here, the long-term outcome of rATG for AR in patients using the current standard immunosuppressive therapy (i.e., tacrolimus an

Diameter scaling of the optical band gap in individual CdSe nanowires

The diameter dependence of the optical band gap of single CdSe nanowires (NWs) is investigated by a combination of atomic force microscopy, scanning fluorescence microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. We find a good congruence of the experimental data to calculations within the effective mass approximation taking into account quantization, exciton Coulomb interaction, and dielectric mismatch. The experimental data are furthermore compared to different theoretical approaches. We discuss the influence of alternating wurtzite and zinc blende segments along the NWs on their optical properties

Theoretical aspects of point defects in semiconductor nanowires

We review several fundamental and practical aspects of the theoretical treatment of neutral and charged point defects—i.e., vacancies, interstitials, substitutional impurities, and complexes—in bulk and nanowires (NWs). In particular, we show how a few of the issues preventing the straightforward application of bulk methods to NWs can be partially remedied. With this, we show how standard substitutional doping yields too high activation energies for ultrathin NWs, and that substrate bias should also be an important parameter to control impurity incorporation into the NW during growth