Kidney transplantation from cadaveric donors has become a routine treatment of renal failure. Acute graft failure or early rejection after transplantation seems to be multifactorial. In our study we hypothesized that one of the factors influencing the outcome in the status of organ harvested from the cadaveric donor. We evaluated 35 donors of cadaveric kidney; 17 donors with brain death following head-brain injury (group D1) and 18 donors with brain death of non-traumatic etiology (group D2). The donors in D1 were younger than donors in D2 group, with more men in D1 group. With respect to the small number of cadavers included in the study, we found higher incidence of acute rejection from donors in group D2. In all donors we found higher count of B lymphocytes probably due to increase in IL-6 level. We also observed higher serum level of membrane and soluble receptor for IL-2. The presence of receptors could be ascribed to general activation of immune system – SIRS.

        Key words: brain death – selenium – lymphocyte subpopulation – cytokines