A lot has happened since I last posted about the UCLA Delayed Tolerance research project. The biggest milestone was stopping tacrolimus in June 2026. For five months, I have not taken any anti-rejection medication. Physically, I do not feel any different from before, and the test results for creatinine are still satisfactory.
This is one year of test results. Each data point represents a blood draw, either at the UCLA campus or at the oncology clinic in Irvine. The UCLA nephrologist said he was not concerned about results that were slightly high since the overall trend is stable around 1.3 mg/dL. From the chart, you can see that I had lab tests every week from June through October 2026. The schedule is now once every two weeks and will change to monthly in 2027 as the research team is more confident that my transplanted kidney is doing well.
The research team also published a paper titled “Delayed immune tolerance intentionally achieved years after 2-haplotype matched kidney transplantation” in the American Journal of Transplantation. In the article, they discuss results from six patients in the research project. I am recipient #6. From speaking to the author, I know that recipients #7 and #8 only had partial success, as they were unable to discontinue the last anti-rejection medication.
One thing worth mentioning is the figure titled Recipient Chimerism. I do not know what all the lines represent, but my chart definitely looks different from the rest. I have seen additional results on the clinic computer, and I observed that the black line for PBMC stays high for the 12-month post-transplant results.
I need to ask about these test result trends more during my next appointment at UCLA.
