Late failing heart transplants: Unraveling the role of antibody-mediated rejection in cardiac allograft vasculopathy

Heart transplantation is a lifesaving procedure for patients with severe heart failure. However, many hear transplant recipients suffer from a rapid narrowing of the vessels in the newly transplanted heart. This condition is called "allograft vasculopathy" and leads to a poor survival. Why this narrowing of the vessels occurs is not completely understood. Recent insights show that antibodies might be the cause. Antibodies against the transplanted heart are made by the recipient's immune system, because it recognises the transplanted heart as foreign. The process by which these antibodies attack the transplanted heart, is called "antibodymediated rejection". WHETHER these antibodies play an important role, WHY they are formed in the first place, and HOW they attack the vessels of the transplanted heart, is currently unknown. We want to answer these 3 questions by investigating a large group of heart transplant recipients at the University Hospitals Leuven.