A Rise in Percentages of Circulating Lymphocyte Subsets Correlates With Acute Rejection in Liver Transplant Recipients

Background: Little is known about the shift of circulating lymphocyte subsets following liver transplantation and thus, its relationship with acute rejection. Methods: Liver transplant recipients were enrolled to assess the effect of primary liver diseases, gender, age, and follow-up periods on the shift of circulating lymphocyte subsets. Moreover, patients with rejection were paired to assess the effect of the shift on rejection. Results: : When compared with patients from the middle-term group (29-180 d) and the long-term group (>180 d), patients from the short-term group (< 29 d) had the lowest absolute counts of T cell subsets, NK cells and NK T cells, and the lowest percentages of T cell subsets, B cells, NK cells and NK T cells but the highest percentage of DC. However, other factors did not affect circulating lymphocyte subsets. Percentages of T cells, CD4 + T cells, B cells and NK T cells were higher in patients with acute rejection while percentages of T cell subsets and NK cells decreased after anti-rejection treatment. The percentage of NK T cells was identified to be the only independent predictor for acute rejection. The predicted probability was calculated using binary logistic with the area under the curve of 0.89, which had a sensitivity of 70.6% and a specificity of 94.1% at a cut-off value of 0.69. Conclusions: : Circulating lymphocyte subsets gained a global recovery over the post-transplant period, leading to a sharp rise in percentages of circulating lymphocyte subsets, which was in close relation to the occurrence of acute rejection.