Basic Pathological Mechanisms April 6-10 Flashcards
(104 cards)
What are the causes of organ failure?
genetic predisposition, inflammation, infection, toxins, and trauma
What organs are commonly transplanted?
kidney, liver, heart, pancreas, and lung
What are potential barriers to transplantation?
genetic, immunological/inflammatory, physiological, psychological, surgical, social, financial, and ethical
Describe the ABO blood group system.
Group A population has A antigens on red blood cells (and endothelial cells) and produces antibodies to B
Group O population expresses no antigens on red blood cells and produces both A and B antibodies
What is the role of ABO antigens in transfusion medicine?
For a blood donor and recipient to be ABO-compatible for a transfusion, the recipient must not be able to produce Anti-A or Anti-B antibodies that correspond to the A or B antigens on the surface of the donor’s red blood cells
What are major histocompatibility antigens?
class 1 and class 2 MHC
typically more potent inducers of rejection than are minor H antigens (disparities require more immunosuppression than minor H antigen disparities)
In the HLA map, Class II MHC locus is closer to centromere or telomere? MHC class I?
centromere
telomere
What is the clinical significance of HLA complexes?
solid organ & hematopoetic cell transplation; disease association; pharmocogenomics; paternity testing
What is an autograft? How is this different from a xenograft?
a graft transplanted from one site to another site in the same individual; a xenograft is between individuals of different species
How is a syngraft different from a allograft?
syngraft is between genetically identical individuals (monozygotic twins) and allograft is between genetically non-identical individuals with a species
What is the fundamental immunogenetic principle?
Grafts that express histocompatibility antigens on donor cell surfaces that are not expressed by recipient cells
will be rejected.
What is GVHD?
graft versus host disease following blood and marrow transplantation
With GVHD, the newly transplanted donor cells attack the transplant recipient’s body.
How do recipient alloreactive T cells recognize donor HLA antigens?
direct recognition: donor HLA antigen (on donor cell) and donor peptide; occurs initially following allogeneic transplantation
indirect: recipient HLA antigen (on recipient cell) and donor HLA peptide; occurs later in transplantation
What are minor H antigens?
Minor histocompatibility antigens are due to normal proteins that are in themselves polymorphic in a given population. Even when a transplant donor and recipient are identical with respect to their major histocompatibility complex genes, the amino acid differences in minor proteins can cause the grafted tissue to be slowly rejected.
Describe hyperacute rejection.
(minutes to hours) preformed anti-donor antibodies and complement (type II hypersensitivity: neutrophils and lytic enzymes; C4d)
What are pathological features of antibody-mediated rejection?
vasculitis, glomerulitis, and fibrinoid necrosis (chronic rejection)
In kidney transplants what is the main target of cellular rejection?
renal tubule; neutrophils in peritubular capillaries
glomerulitis is not specific for rejection
What are the forms of solid-organ graft rejection?
hyperacute: preformed antibodies (caused by previous blood transfusions, previous transplants, and pregnancy)
acute: T cell respone
acute vascular: de novo antibodies (immunoglobulins)
chronic: T and B cell response (fibroproliferative changes)
How is histocompatibility tested?
HLA typing: microlymphoctotoxicy assay, flow cytometry, PCR with sequence-specific primers (SSP/SSO)
crossmatching
antibody screening
What are approaches to eliminating graft rejection?
Minimization of genetic disparity between donor and recipient (HLA matching)
Pharmacologic immunosuppression: drugs and antibodies
Clonally-specific immunosuppression: blockade of co-stimulation
(to limit the effect of pathogens and prevention of neoplastic transformation)
Describe microlymphocytotoxicity assay.
A blood specimen from the patient is processed
to separate the lymphocytes from other cellular
blood components (separation of T and B lymphocytes)
antibody directed against a known MHC antigen is added to a well (then lymphocytes are added): during this incubation, if the lymphocyte possesses
the antigen that is the target of the antibody, the antibody will coat the cell.
complement proteins are added: During this incubation,
complement will attach to any cell that is coated with
antibody
In regards to MHC complexes, which allele has the highest variability? least?
DRB1; DRA
What are passenger leukocytes?
professional APCs: simulate immune response against the allograft (dendritic cells, B cells, macrophages, and monocytes)
What is the result of a second transplantation following an initial rejection?
second rejection is more rapid and more potent (result of immunized T cells to the MHC complexes exhibited on the allograft)