An in vitro study of renal allograft recipients for cellular delayed type hypersensitivity to glomerular basement membrane and disrupted spleen cells.

An in vitro study of delayed hypersensitivity by leucocyte migration inhibition using disrupted spleen cells as a source of transplantation antigens, and soluble glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antigen, was made on the peripheral blood leucocytes of six normal subjects and eleven renal allograft recipients. There was no inhibition of migration in the control group. The cells of one allograft recipient were inhibited by disrupted spleen cells and the cells of four other recipients were inhibited by soluble GBM antigen. Three of the latter had underlying glomerulonephritis and the fourth recipient only showed inhibition after infarction of the graft and its removal. These observations suggest that the immunosuppressed transplant recipients develop hypersensitivity to GBM antigen although there is no evidence of deteriorating renal function.