Evaluation of Digital PCR as a Technique for Monitoring Acute Rejection in Kidney Transplantation.
- Author:
Hyeseon LEE
1
;
Young Mi PARK
;
Yu Mee WE
;
Duck Jong HAN
;
Jung Woo SEO
;
Haena MOON
;
Yu Ho LEE
;
Yang Gyun KIM
;
Ju Young MOON
;
Sang Ho LEE
;
Jong Keuk LEE
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: acute rejection; cell-free DNA; digital PCR; kidney transplantation
- MeSH: Biopsy; Creatinine; DNA; Humans; Kidney Transplantation*; Kidney*; Monitoring, Physiologic; Plasma; Polymerase Chain Reaction*; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Tissue Donors; Transplant Recipients; Transplants
- From:Genomics & Informatics 2017;15(1):2-10
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Early detection and proper management of kidney rejection are crucial for the long-term health of a transplant recipient. Recipients are normally monitored by serum creatinine measurement and sometimes with graft biopsies. Donor-derived cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) in the recipient's plasma and/or urine may be a better indicator of acute rejection. We evaluated digital PCR (dPCR) as a system for monitoring graft status using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based detection of donor DNA in plasma or urine. We compared the detection abilities of the QX200, RainDrop, and QuantStudio 3D dPCR systems. The QX200 was the most accurate and sensitive. Plasma and/or urine samples were isolated from 34 kidney recipients at multiple time points after transplantation, and analyzed by dPCR using the QX200. We found that donor DNA was almost undetectable in plasma DNA samples, whereas a high percentage of donor DNA was measured in urine DNA samples, indicating that urine is a good source of cfDNA for patient monitoring. We found that at least 24% of the highly polymorphic SNPs used to identify individuals could also identify donor cfDNA in transplant patient samples. Our results further showed that autosomal, sex-specific, and mitochondrial SNPs were suitable markers for identifying donor cfDNA. Finally, we found that donor-derived cfDNA measurement by dPCR was not sufficient to predict a patient's clinical condition. Our results indicate that donor-derived cfDNA is not an accurate predictor of kidney status in kidney transplant patients.
