A Retrospective Review - Anti-HLA Antibodies

Transplant rejection following organ transplant occurs because the recipient's immune system attacks the transplanted organ. The recipients immune system recognizes the transplanted organ as foreign tissue and attempts to destroy it in the similar way that it attempts to destroy infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is a set of genes that is responsible for controlling an individuals' ability to tell the difference between an infectious agent and self tissue. Differences in HLA genes between donors and recipients play a major part in influencing the rejection or acceptance of foreign tissue (i.e. transplanted organs). Due to time limitations in heart transplantation, HLA matching is not considered. It is unclear how individual HLA differences affect the recovery and expected lifespan of pediatric heart transplant recipients. This study is designed to look at the donor-recipient matching and mismatching to determine if mismatching leads to more complications, shorter graft survival and, therefore, increased risk of death following pediatric heart transplantation.