Background: Throughout the course of transplantation oxidative stress is a major mediator of adverse outcome. The major objective of this investigation is to measure the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and its’ correlation with immunosuppressive drug levels after kidney transplantation.
Methods: Thirty-five kidney transplanted recipients and thirty-five healthy subjects that matched for age were entered in this study. The obtained data were analyzed using the Statistical Package (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA). The significance level was set at P<0.05.
Results: In healthy controls, the mean±SD for T-AOC was 91.9±16.6 (U/ml), that was significantly higher when compared to mean value of 27.3±24.1 (U/ml), kidney transplanted recipients (P≤0.01). The mean value of tacrolimus levels was 13.7±5.3 (ng/ml). Correlation between tacrolimus trough levels and TAOC was 0.19 (P≤0.14). There were not any significant differences regarding age in cases and controls (P≤42). Conclusion: The outcomes of this study suggested that within the limited sample size TAOC in kidney transplanted recipient was lower than controls. Further studies associated with TAOC and clinical outcome after kidney transplantation recommended.

Keywords: TAOC, ROS, Anti-oxidant, tacrolimus, recipient, kidney, transplantation