- Eder, Michael;
- Schwarz, Christoph;
- Kammer, Michael;
- Jacobsen, Niels;
- Stavroula, Masouridi Levrat;
- Cowan, Morton J;
- Chongkrairatanakul, Tepsiri;
- Gaston, Robert;
- Ravanan, Rommel;
- Ishida, Hideki;
- Bachmann, Anette;
- Alvarez, Sergio;
- Koch, Martina;
- Garrouste, Cyril;
- Duffner, Ulrich A;
- Cullis, Brett;
- Schaap, Nicolaas;
- Medinger, Michael;
- Sørensen, Søren Schwartz;
- Dauber, Eva‐Maria;
- Böhmig, Georg;
- Regele, Heinz;
- Berlakovich, Gabriela A;
- Wekerle, Thomas;
- Oberbauer, Rainer
Tolerance induction through simultaneous hematopoietic stem cell and renal transplantation has shown promising results, but it is hampered by the toxicity of preconditioning therapies and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Moreover, renal function has never been compared to conventionally transplanted patients, thus, whether donor-specific tolerance results in improved outcomes remains unanswered. We collected follow-up data of published cases of renal transplantations after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from the same donor and compared patient and transplant kidney survival as well as function with caliper-matched living-donor renal transplantations from the Austrian dialysis and transplant registry. Overall, 22 tolerant and 20 control patients were included (median observation period 10 years [range 11 months to 26 years]). In the tolerant group, no renal allograft loss was reported, whereas 3 were lost in the control group. Median creatinine levels were 85 μmol/l (interquartile range [IQR] 72-99) in the tolerant cohort and 118 μmol/l (IQR 99-143) in the control group. Mixed linear-model showed around 29% lower average creatinine levels throughout follow-up in the tolerant group (P < .01). Our data clearly show stable renal graft function without long-term immunosuppression for many years, suggesting permanent donor-specific tolerance. Thus sequential transplantation might be an alternative approach for future studies targeting tolerance induction in renal allograft recipients.