Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transplant. Dec 24, 2015; 5(4): 329-337
Published online Dec 24, 2015. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v5.i4.329
Excellent long term patient and renal allograft survival after ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation: Experience of one center
Christina Melexopoulou, Smaragdi Marinaki, George Liapis, Chrysanthi Skalioti, Maria Gavalaki, George Zavos, John N Boletis
Christina Melexopoulou, Smaragdi Marinaki, Chrysanthi Skalioti, John N Boletis, Nephrology Department and Renal Transplantation Unit, Laiko Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
George Liapis, 1st Department of Pathology Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Maria Gavalaki, Blood Transfusion Center-National Reference Center for Congenital Haemorrhagic Disorders, Laiko Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
George Zavos, Renal Transplantation Unit, Laiko Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
Author contributions: Melexopoulou C collected and analyzed the data and wrote the following sections: “Materials and Methods” and “Results”; Marinaki S analyzed and evaluated the data and wrote the following sections: “Introduction” and “Discussion”; Liapis G evaluated the histopathologic findings and wrote the following sections: “Biopsies” and “Histopathologic evaluation - Acute rejections”; Skalioti C contributed to the collection of data; she also wrote the “Abstract” and contributed to the writing of the following sections: “Materials and Methods” and “Results”; Gavalaki M analyzed the blood samples; Zavos G contributed to the final revision of the paper; Boletis JN established the ABO-incompatible program in Greece and continues to be the supervisor of the program, he also did the final revision of the paper.
Institutional review board statement: The scientific council of “Laiko” General Hospital of Athens was informed for the study.
Informed consent statement: All participants provided informed consent prior to enrollment in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Christina Melexopoulou, MD, Nephrology Department and Renal Transplantation Unit, Laiko Hospital, 17 Ag., Thoma Street, 11527 Athens, Greece. xmelexopoulou@yahoo.gr
Telephone: +30-210-7456351 Fax: +30-21-32061243
Received: August 9, 2015
Peer-review started: August 11, 2015
First decision: September 21, 2015
Revised: October 10, 2015
Accepted: November 23, 2015
Article in press: November 25, 2015
Published online: December 24, 2015
Processing time: 136 Days and 4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: These excellent long term results further establish ABO-incompatible (ABOi) kidney transplantation as a safe and effective therapeutic strategy for the management of end-stage renal disease patients. Various immunosuppressants including Everolimus could be potentially selected based on patient’s profile. ABOi kidney transplantation could contribute to the enlargement of the living donor pool, particularly in countries with organ shortage.