Programmed to direct alloimmunity

After an allograft placement, the body faces an intricate task of mounting a balanced immune response to foreign antigens. The ideal response entails maintaining enough immunity to prevent infections and cancer yet not endangering the ability to achieve and maintain organ tolerance. Programmed death-1 and its ligands expressed on non-professional antigen-presenting cells such as the renal tubular epithelium function to downregulate allogenic T-cell responses and thus play an important role in achieving this balance