Elevated soluble CD30 correlates with development of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome following lung transplantation

Background. The long-term function of lung transplants is limited by chronic rejection (bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, BOS). Due to lack of specific markers, BOS is diagnosed clinically. Because there is strong evidence that alloimmunity plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of BOS, we investigated whether soluble CD30 (sCD30), a T-cell activation marker, would correlate with BOS. Methods. Sera collected serially from BOS + (n = 20) and matched BOS - (n = 20) lung transplant (LT) patients were analyzed for sCD30 by enzyme-1 inked immunosorbent assay. Pretransplan t sera and sera from normal donors were also analyzed. Results. PreLT levels were comparable to normal subjects. However, posttransplant there was a significant elevation in sCD30 levels during BOS development in all 130S+ patients, compared to BOS- (mean 139.8 +/- 1-10.7 vs. 14.8 +/- 4-2.7 U/ml, P < 0.001). sCD30 levels declined in the BOS+ patients but were still elevated compared to BOS- (48.52 +/- 5.04 vs. 7.19 +/- 2.9, P < 0.0001). Conclusions. We conclude that sCD30 may represent a novel marker to monitor the development of BOS.