T6+ and HLA‐DR+ cell numbers in epidermis of immunosuppressed renal transplant recipients

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The increased susceptibility of the skin of chronically immunosuppressed individuals to viral infections and sunlight‐induced malignancies suggests specific drug‐induced, dysfunction of local immune mechanisms within the sun‐exposed skin of these individuals. To help understand the effect of immunosuppressive therapy alone in the absence of ultraviolet light on the immune system of skin, biopsies were collected from non‐sun‐exposed buttock skin of control, healthy volunteers and kidney transplant recipients immunosuppressed with either azathioprine/ prednisone or cyclosporin A/prednisone and examined for incidences of T6+, and HLA‐DR+ cells. No significant differences in the incidences of these 2 cell types were found (a) between control individuals and transplant recipients, (b) between transplant recipients receiving either of the immunosuppressive drug regimes, or (c) between transplant recipients who either had or had not developed skin cancer.