Monitoring of suppressor cell activity in nine renal transplant patients.

Function of Concanavalin A generated suppressor cells was serially tested on lymphocytes stimulated by mitogens, by a pool of test cells different in HLA-ABC and -DR, and by the kidney donor's cells preserved in liquid nitrogen. In six patients whose lymphocytes had strong suppressor cell activity, the kidney had a good function for 17-28 months (up to the time of the survey). In three patients who had practically no suppressor cell activity before and after transplantation, each kidney was rejected within 2-3 months. These observations are in accordance with recent experimental and clinical studies of other authors supporting the importance of suppressor cell activity in transplantation tolerance.