Kidney transplantation after ABO-incompatible hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: A case report and literature review

Although some studies have reported kidney transplantation for end-stage kidney disease after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, few have reported kidney transplantation after ABO-incompatible hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In this report, we describe a case of kidney transplantation after major ABO-incompatible HSCT and reviewed previous reports of kidney transplantation after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. A 21-year-old male patient received major ABO-incompatible hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from an unrelated donor for B-lymphoblastic lymphoma. He developed chronic kidney disease requiring kidney replacement therapy because of drug toxicity and underwent ABO-compatible living donor kidney transplantation from his mother with standard immunosuppression. He had no anti-donor blood type antibody before kidney transplantation. Ten months after kidney transplantation, he is in good clinical condition with good renal function. Eighty-four cases of kidney transplantation after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation have been reported in literature. Among them, 25 recipients were from the same donor as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Out of these 25 recipients, 15 did not undergo maintenance immunosuppressive therapy. The low rejection incidence (14 %) and high rate of infection (32 %) and malignancy (10 %) suggest that kidney transplant recipients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation are over-immunosuppressed. There were only three reports of kidney transplantation after ABO-incompatible hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, including the present case. Kidney transplantation may be an effective renal replacement therapy for end-stage kidney disease after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, even in ABO-incompatible hematopoietic stem cell transplantation cases.