New Findings from National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital in the Area of Kidney Transplants Reported (Serum Proteomic Profiles of Microvascular Inflammation in Donor-specific Antibody-negative and C4d-negative in Kidney Transplantation): Transplant Medicine – Kidney Transplants

2026 JUL 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at South Korea Daily Report -- Current study results on Transplant Medicine - Kidney Transplants have been published. According to news reporting originating from Goyang, South Korea, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Microvascular inflammation (MVI) has long been considered a hallmark of antibody-mediated rejection (AMR). However, the 2022 Banff classification introduced isolated MVI (iMVI; MVI+/donor-specific antibody [DSA]-/C4d-) as a distinct phenotype.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, “The biological characteristics and clinical significance of iMVI remain incompletely understood. Kidney transplant recipients who underwent allograft biopsy between 2013 and 2024 were classified into iMVI, AMR (MVI+/DSA+/C4d+), and acute tubular injury (ATI; MVI-/DSA-/C4d-). After propensity score matching, 80 patients (30 iMVI, 30 AMR, and 20 ATI) compromised the main cohort. An independent validation cohort (n = 88; 26 iMVI, 26 AMR, 26 T-cell-mediated rejection, 10 ATI) was additionally assembled. Serum proteomic profiling was performed using a proximity extension assay. iMVI exhibited a distinct proteomic profile enriched for innate and cytotoxic immune activation proteins, including tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 9, programmed death-ligand 1, interleukin-15 receptor subunit alpha, fibroblast growth factor 19, C-X3-C motif chemokine ligand 1, C-C motif chemokine ligand 23, signaling lymphocytic activation molecule family member 1, and interleukin-10 receptor subunit beta with enrichment of natural killer cell differentiation and leukocyte migration pathway. In contrast, AMR showed higher expression of adaptive and humoral immune mediators, including interleukin-33, interleukin-2, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, and interleukin-2 receptor subunit beta with enrichment of immunoglobulin production and interferon-g-related adaptive immune pathways. Protein risk scores showed strong discriminative performance in the main cohort (area under the curve, 0.856 for iMVI; 0.879 for AMR) and retained significant ability in the validation cohort (area under the curve, 0.708 and 0.689, respectively). Several iMVI-enriched proteins were significantly associated with increased risk of death-censored graft loss.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “IMVI is characterized by dominant innate and cytotoxic immune activation distinct from AMR and is associated with adverse graft outcomes, supporting its recognition as a clinically meaningful phenotype beyond conventional AMR.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Serum Proteomic Profiles of Microvascular Inflammation in Donor-specific Antibody-negative and C4d-negative in Kidney Transplantation. Transplantation, 2026. Transplantation can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Transplantation - http://journals.lww.com/transplantjournal/pages/default.aspx)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Hyo Jeong Kim, Dept. of Internal Medicine, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Hee Byung Koh, Hyung Woo Kim, Byounghwi Ko, Minyu Kang, Hyun Jeong Kim, Juhan Lee, Myung Soo Kim, Beom Seok Kim, Kyu Ha Huh and Jaeseok Yang.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1097/tp.0000000000005839. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal Transplantation is: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA.

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