Inflammation among kidney transplant donors with and without HIV: Multicenter HOPE in Action Consortium

Fatima Zaman; Xianming Zhu; Joanne H Hunt; Gracie Rozek; Yolanda Eby; Sarah Hussain; Niraj M Desai; Sander Florman; Meenakshi M Rana; Rachel Friedman-Moraco; Marcus R Pereira; Shikha Mehta; Peter Stock; Alexander Gilbert; Jonathan Hand; Michele I Morris; Valentina Stosor; Sapna A Mehta; Catherine B Small; Joanna Schaenman; Carlos A Q Santos; Saima Aslam; David Wojciechowski; Maricar Malinis; Ghady Haidar; Jonah Odim; Megan Morsheimer; Dorry L Segev; Andrew D Redd; Christine M Durand; Aaron A R Tobian

doi:10.1016/j.clim.2025.110563

Inflammation among kidney transplant donors with and without HIV: Multicenter HOPE in Action Consortium

Clin Immunol. 2025 Jul 11:110563. doi: 10.1016/j.clim.2025.110563. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Fatima Zaman¹, Xianming Zhu¹, Joanne H Hunt², Gracie Rozek¹, Yolanda Eby¹, Sarah Hussain³, Niraj M Desai⁴, Sander Florman⁵, Meenakshi M Rana⁶, Rachel Friedman-Moraco⁷, Marcus R Pereira⁸, Shikha Mehta⁹, Peter Stock¹⁰, Alexander Gilbert¹¹, Jonathan Hand¹², Michele I Morris¹³, Valentina Stosor¹⁴, Sapna A Mehta¹⁵, Catherine B Small¹⁶, Joanna Schaenman¹², Carlos A Q Santos¹⁷, Saima Aslam¹⁸, David Wojciechowski¹⁹, Maricar Malinis²⁰, Ghady Haidar²¹, Jonah Odim²², Megan Morsheimer²², Dorry L Segev²³, Andrew D Redd²⁴, Christine M Durand³, Aaron A R Tobian¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
² Laboratory of Immunoregulation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
³ Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Department of Surgery, Northwell Transplant Institute, Manhasset, NY, USA.
⁵ Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
⁶ Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ Department of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁸ Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ Department of Medicine, University of Alabama Heersink School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
¹¹ Medstar Transplant Institute, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA.
¹² Ochsner Health, New Orleans, LA, USA.
¹³ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA.
¹⁴ Departments of Medicine and Surgery, Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Organ Transplantation, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
¹⁵ NYU Langone Transplant Institute, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁷ Division of Infectious Diseases, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
²⁰ Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
²¹ Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
²² Division of Extramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
²³ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA; Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
²⁴ Laboratory of Immunoregulation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

PMID: 40653253
DOI: 10.1016/j.clim.2025.110563

Abstract

Kidney transplantation from donors with HIV has recently become standard clinical practice, but the plasma inflammatory profile is not well characterized. Thirty-two cytokines and chemokines were evaluated among donors with HIV (n = 63) and without HIV (n = 41). Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to compare cytokines between groups. Donors with and without HIV were generally similar in terms of characteristics, except those with HIV had a non-significantly lower kidney donor profile index, reflecting better graft survival, creatinine, and body mass index. Most cytokine and chemokine levels were similar between groups. However, median IL-8 levels were higher (p < 0.0015) in donors without HIV (32.6 pg/mL,IQR = 13.8-394.9) compared to donors with HIV (15.1 pg/mL,IQR = 8.4-35.5). There were no significant correlations between cytokine and chemokine concentrations and CD4 counts or HIV viral load. In summary, inflammatory profiles were similar or lower among donors with HIV compared to donors without HIV supporting the safety of this emerging kidney transplantation practice.

Keywords: Chemokines; Cytokines; HIV; HOPE act; Inflammation; Kidney; Organ donation; Organ transplantation; Transplant.