Abstract:
Objective To study the pathological changes of renal grafts from elderly donor in young recipients and to investigate the safety of kidney transplantation from elderly donors.
Methods Fourteen elderly kidney donors (with the age > 55 years old) and fourteen young recipients (with the age < 30 years old) underwent living related donor renal transplantation at the Department of Transplantation of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from January 2008 to December 2008 were enrolled as the object of study. Every elderly donor kidney was performed time-zero biopsy and every young recipient was performed routine renal graft biopsy 6 months after transplantation. The pathological and structural changes of kidney tissues after renal transplantation from elderly donors were observed.
Results The histopathological changes occurred at 6 months after transplantation from elderly kidney donors to young recipients. Compared with those before transplantation, the severity of renal arteriolar lesion and the index of renal arteriolar sclerosis alleviated after transplantation(P < 0.05), and the ratio of glomerulosclerosis did not change after transplantation (P > 0.05). The expression of fibronectin (FN) decreased after transplantation, but the difference had no statistical significance (P > 0.05). The expression of laminin (LN) decreased after transplantation (P < 0.05).
Conclusions The histopathological structure of renal graft from elderly donors in young recipients has improved.