tissue typing

tissue typing [′tish·ü ‚tīp·iŋ]

(medicine)

A procedure involving a test or a series of tests to determine the compatibility of tissues from a prospective donor and a recipient prior to transplantation.

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Tissue typing

A procedure involving a test or a series of tests to determine the compatibility of tissues from a prospective donor and a recipient prior to transplantation. The immunological response of a recipient to a transplant from a donor is directed against many cell-surface histocompatibility antigens controlled by genes at many different loci. However, one of these loci, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), controls antigens that evoke the strongest immunological response. The human MHC is known as the HLA system, which stands for the first (A) human leukocyte blood group system discovered. See Cellular immunology, Histocompatibility

The success of transplantation is greatly dependent on the degree of histocompatibility (identity) between the donor and recipient, which is determined by the HLA complex. When the donor and recipient have a low degree of histocompatibility, the organ is said to be mismatched, and the recipient mounts an immune response against the donor antigen. By laboratory testing, the degree of antigenic similarity between the donor and the recipient and the degree of preexisting recipient sensitization to donor antigens (and therefore preformed antibodies) can be determined. This is known as cross-matching.

Phenotyping of HLA-A, -B, and -C (ABC typing) of an individual is determined by reacting that individual's lymphocytes with a large panel of antisera directed against specific HLA antigens. The procedure is known as complement-mediated cytotoxicity assay. The person's lymphocytes are incubated with the different antisera and complement is added. Killing of the cells being tested indicates that they express the HLA antigens recognized by the particular antiserum being used. Killing of potential donor lymphocytes in the complement-mediated cytotoxicity assay is a contraindication to transplantation of tissue from that donor. See Complement, Hypersensitivity, Immunoassay

In addition to its important role in organ transplantation, determination of the HLA phenotype is useful in paternity testing, forensic medicine, and the investigation of HLA-disease associations. See Transplantation biology