AJT Highlights

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo are joined by Alessia Giarraputo to discuss the key articles of the August issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Alessia Giarraputo is a postdoc research fellow at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

[3:38] Donor-reactive clonotypes are overrepresented in the urinary T cell repertoire during kidney transplant rejection and show distinct dynamics in the circulation

[13:57] Organ-specific differences in the epidemiology of cytomegalovirus infections in high-risk (cytomegalovirus donor seropositive, recipient seronegative) solid organ transplant recipients with prolonged follow-up: A 10-year experience

[22:17] Immune checkpoint inhibitors after liver transplantation: The role of immunosuppressive management

[28:34] Expert consensus on the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the liver transplant setting: Guidance from the Liver Transplant Committee of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF)

[33:50] Outcomes of kidney transplants from pediatric donors with acute kidney injury

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo discuss the key articles of the July issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

[3:52] Simultaneous quantification of native human and transgenic porcine liver function in a decedent model of extracorporeal cross-circulation

[12:11] Pathologic evaluation of pig kidney and heart xenografts: 2024 recommendations from the Banff Xenotransplantation Pathology Working Group

[13:36] The use of a centralized normothermic preservation and assessment center to rescue kidneys declined after standard allocation

[25:57] Machine perfusion modulates cold-preservation injury in kidney transplantation: IDEAL stage 4 United States population cohort study

[37:05] Impaired thymic function is independently associated with an increased risk of posttransplant infections in kidney recipients

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo discuss the key articles of the June issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

[3:32] MHC Matchmaker: An in silico based algorithm to analyze cross-species NHP, pig, and human MHC compatibility on the amino acid level

[11:50] Wisdom of the Crowd: Ensuring the justness and validity of group decision-making in solid organ transplant

[16:39] Inhibition of cytomegalovirus reactivation by ex vivo treatment of human kidneys with the SYN002 immunotoxin

[22:20] There is nothing equitable about a wasted organ; eliminating out-of-sequence allocation for 30 days decreases utilization of hard-to-place kidneys

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo are joined by Somaya Zahran to discuss the key articles of the May issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Somaya Zahran is a transplant nephrology fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

[03:06] Sensitization in organ transplantation: Assessment of Risk (STAR) 2025 meeting group report

[08:55] The Banff 2024 Kidney Meeting Report: Rejection as a spectrum of phenotypes and focus on differential diagnostic reasoning

[22:17] Normothermic versus hypothermic machine perfusion in kidney transplantation: A randomized controlled trial

[27:36] Gene-edited pig cardiac xenotransplantation as a bridge to allotransplantation in infants: Progress in a pig-to-baboon model

AJT April 2026 Editors’ Picks

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo are joined by Cesar Berto to discuss the key articles of the April issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Dr. Cesar Berto is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, in the Division of Infectious Diseases

[03:28] Invasive mold infection in heart transplant recipients: A nationwide multicenter matched case–control study between 2008 and 2022 in France

[08:50] Pharmacokinetics, lineage identity, and trafficking of ex vivo expanded polyclonal regulatory T cells in a prospective randomized clinical trial of kidney transplant recipients with allograft inflammation

[20:55] Transmembrane protein 16F-chloride intracellular channel 1 interaction mediates recipient dendritic cell cross-decoration after transplantation

[31:27] Dual costimulation blockade with the CD154-specific fusion protein dazodalibep and belatacept for prophylaxis of kidney allograft rejection

[43:52] Costimulatory blockade and infectious risk in solid organ transplantation

In this specialty podcast, Dr. Justin Barr is joined by Dr. Thomas Schlich and Dr. Susan Lederer to discuss the early history of transplant surgery, with Dr. Schlich focusing on the mostly European efforts inaugurating solid organ transplant between 1880 and 1910 whilst Dr. Lederer concentrates on skin, blood, and corneal transplants in early 20^th century America.   

Justin Barr practices abdominal transplant and advanced hepatobiliary surgery at the Ochsner Clinic

Thomas Schlich is the James McGill Professor and Department Chair at McGill University

Susan E. Lederer is the Ronald Numbers Professor of History of Medicine and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

References:

The Origins of Organ Transplantation

Flesh and Blood: Organ Transplantation and Blood Transfusion in Twentieth-Century America

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo are joined by Justin Barr to discuss the key articles of the March issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Justin Barr practices abdominal transplant and advanced hepatobiliary surgery at Ochsner Medical Center

[03:13] Implementation of a physician assistant-led recovery model for heart transplantation: Clinical outcomes and programmatic benefits at a high-volume center

[13:54] A 100-year simulation of the National Kidney Registry’s voucher program

[25:32] Risk of deficient mismatch repair colorectal cancer and precursors after kidney transplantation: A nationwide study

[35:09] Predictive value of torque teno virus viral load for BK polyomavirus DNAemia depends on BK polyomavirus–specific humoral immunity in kidney transplant recipients

[42:50] Suppression of cardiac allograft vasculopathy by a macrophage efferocytosis receptor

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo are joined by Juan Pablo Huidobro to discuss the key articles of the February issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Juan Pablo Huidobro is an Assistant Professor in Nephrology at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

[02:52] Evolving landscape of thrombotic microangiopathy in kidney transplant recipients in the post–C5 inhibitor era

[13:22] Erythropoietin prolongs graft survival in mice by counteracting trained immunity

[22:06] A new principle to attenuate ischemia reperfusion injury in kidney transplantation

[33:14] Sustained allogeneic kidney graft operational tolerance despite discontinued conventional immunosuppression after CD19-CAR-T-cell therapy for relapsed/refractory post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorder

[40:15] Bloodstream Infection Subtypes and Characteristics Comparing Solid Organ Transplant and Non-Transplant Populations

AJT January 2026 Editors’ Picks

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo are joined by Dr. Al-Faraaz Kassam to discuss the key articles of the January issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Al-Faraaz Kassam is an Assistant Professor in Transplant Surgery at Johns Hopkins University

[03:45] Evaluation of kidney procurement biopsy and machine perfusion on allograft outcomes: A retrospective cohort study of the OPTN database

[11:23] Improving the  histologic detection of donor-specific antibody-negative antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplants

[23:01] Exosome-primed T cell immunity is facilitated by complement activation

[32:26] Landscape of subclinical rejection in a large international cohort of pediatric kidney transplant (kTx) recipients

[42:19] Donor Heart Preservation at 10°C After Thoracoabdominal Normothermic Regional Perfusion Lowers Rates of Severe Primary Graft Dysfunction and Improves Recipient Transplant Outcomes

 

AJT December 2025 Editors’ Picks

Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo are joined by Hannah Bahakel to discuss the key articles of the December issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Hannah Bahakel is a Clinical Immunodeficiency fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

[03:34] Higher vs standard mean arterial pressure target in the immediate postoperative period of liver transplantation to prevent acute kidney injury: A randomized clinical trial (LIVER-PAM)

[13:51] Donor-derived cell-free DNA significantly improves rejection yield in kidney transplant biopsies

[26:27] Tolerogenic lung allograft microenvironment suppresses pathogenic tissue remodeling following respiratory virus infection in mice

[37:11] Therapeutic needs in solid organ transplant recipients: The American Society of Transplantation patient survey

[48:19] Impact of kidney function on 200 days of antiviral prophylaxis for cytomegalovirus disease in cytomegalovirus-seronegative recipients of cytomegalovirus-seropositive donor kidneys: Post hoc analysis of a randomized, phase 3 trial of letermovir vs valganciclovir prophylaxis