Introduction

Regulatory T cells (Treg) are emerging as a potential therapy to facilitate long-term allograft survival what makes identification of reliable surface markers that are selectively expressed on Treg is crucial. The aim of this study is to evaluate the regulatory and suppressive functions of CD127 in peripheral T lymphocytes of pediatric kidney transplant recipients through studying the association their frequency and the development of rejection.

Material and methods

Flow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood samples for the CD127 surface marker of 50 pediatric transplant recipients and 12 healthy controls was done. Clinical, laboratory, immunosuppressive therapy data and graft function of transplant recipients were collected and correlated with their CD127 peripheral blood expression.

Results

CD127 expression in transplanted children was significantly elevated than that of controls (2.76 ±3.26% vs. 0.95 ±0.94%, p = 0.042). CD 127 expression did not correlate with donor relation, cytomegalovirus infection, acute rejection episodes or type of immunosuppressive drugs (p = 0.475, 0.479, 0.678 and 0.333 respectively). Patients with chronic allograft dysfunction (CAD) had significantly lowered frequencies of CD127 compared with those with stable graft function (0.61 ±0.549% vs. 3.08 ±3.375 %, p = 0.021).

Conclusions

CD127+ cells is more expressed in transplanted children with stable graft function than those with CAD which makes the regulatory role of CD127+ cells post-transplantation a subject for further researches. The negative relationship between the frequency of CD127 and CAD supposes these cells as probable candidates for allowing allograft survival.