A very low thymus function identifies patients with substantial increased risk for long-term mortality after kidney transplantation

End-stage renal disease is associated with premature ageing of the T cell immune system but inter-individual variation is substantial. The hypothesis was tested that advanced immunological T cell ageing assessed by peripheral T cell differentiation increases the long-term mortality risk after renal transplantation.Circulating T cells of 211 recipients of a kidney from a living donor were analyzed before and in the first year after...