Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Yang, H. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Yang, H. C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Nephrol Dial Transplant (2003) 18: I16-I20
© 2003 European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association

Original Article

Tailoring tacrolimus-based immunotherapy in renal transplantation

Harold C. Yang

Pinnacle Health Systems at Harrisburg, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Tacrolimus is a cornerstone immunosuppressive agent in renal transplantation and compared with ciclosporin, its use is associated with a reduced incidence of acute rejection. Optimizing immunosuppressive management in the early post-transplant period is important for achieving long-term graft function and survival. In attempts to improve the long-term outcomes of renal transplantation further, tacrolimus has been combined with two novel immunosuppressive agents, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and sirolimus, with encouraging results in terms of patient and graft survival, acute rejection rates and renal graft function. Tacrolimus in combination with MMF adjunctive therapy showed significantly better graft survival in patients with delayed graft function, fewer episodes of corticosteroid-resistant rejection and better renal function at the 3-year follow-up compared with ciclosporin microemulsion plus MMF immunosuppression. A tacrolimus plus MMF regimen was also effective for renal transplant recipients at our centre in Pennsylvania, resulting in excellent survival and rejection rates at 1 year post-transplantation. The 3-month results of a US multicentre study comparing tacrolimus in combination with either MMF or sirolimus showed these two treatment regimens to be equivalent in terms of patient and graft survival, delayed graft function, the incidence of biopsy-confirmed acute rejection and renal graft function, although differences were apparent in terms of acute tubular necrosis and hyperlipidaemia. In conclusion, the development of a new immunosuppressive regimen in renal transplantation should take account of factors that influence graft function, both in the short and long term, as a way of optimizing individual maintenance therapy.

Keywords: graft survival; kidney transplantation; mycophenolate mofetil; renal graft function; sirolimus; tacrolimus

Correspondence and offprint requests to: Dr Harold Yang, Pinnacle Health Systems at Harrisburg, 205 South Front Street, Brady 6, Harrisburg, PA 17104-1696, Pennsylvania, USA. Email: hyang{at}pinnaclehealth.org


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.