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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Transplant.
Sec. Immunosuppression
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frtra.2024.1404740

Propionic acid supplementation promotes the expansion of regulatory T cells in patients with end-stage renal disease but not in renal transplant patients

Provisionally accepted
Moritz Anft Moritz Anft 1Fabian Meyer Fabian Meyer 1,2Sirin Czygan Sirin Czygan 3Felix S. Seibert Felix S. Seibert 1Benjamin J. Rohn Benjamin J. Rohn 1Fotios Tsimas Fotios Tsimas 1,3Richard Viebahn Richard Viebahn 3Timm H. Westhoff Timm H. Westhoff 1Ulrik Stervbo Ulrik Stervbo 1Nina Babel Nina Babel 1,4*Panagiota Zgoura Panagiota Zgoura 5
  • 1 Marien Hospital Herne, University Hospital of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Herne, Germany
  • 2 Department for Anestesiology, Universitätsklinikum Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bochum GmbH, Bochum, Germany
  • 3 Department for Surgery, Universitätsklinikum Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bochum GmbH, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • 4 Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies, Charité Medical University of Berlin, Berlin, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
  • 5 St Anna Hospital, Herne, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In a previous study, we showed an anti-inflammatory effect of propionic acid supplementation in dialysis patients. The present study intends to analyze the effect of the propionic acid on the chronic inflammatory state and T-cell composition in kidney transplant patients compared to dialysis patients. 10 dialysis patients and 16 kidney transplant patients under immunosuppressive standard triple immunosuppressive therapy received 2 × 500 mg propionic acid per day for 30 days. The cellular immune system was analyzed before and after the propionic acid supplementation and 30-90 days thereafter as a follow-up. We measured the main immune cell types and performed an in-depth characterization of T cells including T regs, B cells and dendritic cells. Additionally, we assessed the functional activity and antigenic responsiveness by analysis of third-party antigen-specific T cells after their stimulation by recall (tetanus diphtheria vaccine, TD) antigen. In dialysis patients, we observed an expansion of CD25highCD127- Tregs after propionic acid intake. In contrast, the same supplementation did not result in any expansion of Tregs in transplant patients under immunosuppressive therapy. We also did not observe any changes in the frequencies of the main immune cell subsets except for CD4+/CD8+ distribution with an increase of CD4+ T-cells and decrease of CD8+ T-cells in transplant population. Our data suggest that dietary supplements containing propionate might have a beneficial effect decreasing systemic inflammation in dialysis patients through Treg expansion. However, this effect was not observed in transplant patients, which could be explained by counteracting effect of immunosuppressive drugs preventing Treg expansion.

    Keywords: Immunity, Immunesupression, Kidney Transplantation, propionate, regulatory T cells

    Received: 21 Mar 2024; Accepted: 16 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Anft, Meyer, Czygan, Seibert, Rohn, Tsimas, Viebahn, Westhoff, Stervbo, Babel and Zgoura. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nina Babel, Marien Hospital Herne, University Hospital of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Herne, Germany

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