MMF Monotherapy and Immune Regulation in Kidney Transplant Recipients: Part 1 Steroid Withdrawal

MMF Monotherapy and Immune Regulation in Kidney Transplant Recipients: Part 1 Steroid Withdrawal

Part 1 of the study is to gradually withdraw steroids in a group of 50 older renal transplant recipients, converting then from the 3 drug regimen to a 2 drug regimen (cyclosporine and MMF), while carefully monitoring their graft function. 25 subjects would serve as control patients in the study and would remain on the 3 drug regimen (steroids, cyclosporine and MMF). Immunologic status will be determined before and after IS withdrawal using a delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) transfer test previously described in the original submission. Both the steroid withdrawal subjects and the control subjects will undergo the DTH testing throughout the 3 years of study participation.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patient who have received a kidney transplant during the "MMF era"
• Patients who have stable graft function indicated by a serum creatinine of < 1.8 mg/dl, or a calculated creatinine clearance of > 50 ml/minute

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who have had > 1 rejection episode,
• Patients who have had a rejection episode within the past year;
• Patients who are steroid dependent due to pre-existing disease (for example, RA or SLE