Tissue Typing for Kidney Transplantation for the General Nephrologist

Tissue typing is the process by which an individual's human leukocyte antigens (HLA) are determined. In transplantation, this vital process allows the immunologic or rejection risk of a donor-recipient pairing to be assessed through reviewing their HLA matching and whether any anti-HLA antibodies present in recipient serum are donor specific. Tissue typing has increased in sophistication over time which has allowed a deeper appreciation of the antigenically important parts of HLA and increased the complexity of determining immunologic risk.