Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41972122›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in immunology2026

Neutrophil-associated plasma proteomics identifies HDAC1 as a baseline biomarker of immune tolerance during immunosuppressant withdrawal after pediatric liver transplantation: a single-center cohort study.

Ruofan Wang, Tianran Chen, Yifan Liu, Weiping Zheng, Chong Dong, Kai Wang, Chao Sun, Jing Chen, Enbo Xie, Yang Yang and 9 more

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Article in Frontiers in immunology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Ruofan WangFirst Central Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
Tianran ChenDepartment of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Yifan LiuFirst Central Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
Weiping ZhengDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Chong DongDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Kai WangDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Chao SunDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Jing ChenDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Enbo XieDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Yang YangDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Zhen WangDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Chao HanDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Zhixin ZhangDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Shengqiao ZhaoDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Xinzhe WeiDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Guoyin ZouSchool of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
Feiruzha FulatiFirst Central Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
Zhuolun SongTianjin Key Laboratory of Organ Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Wei GaoDepartment of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: In pediatric liver transplantation (pLT), long-term immunosuppression (IS) contributes to infection risk and chronic toxicity, yet IS minimization or withdrawal requires balancing rejection risk. Practical biomarkers for baseline risk stratification at the start of planned withdrawal remain scarce. This study investigated whether baseline neutrophil-associated proteomic signatures and histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) levels are associated with IS withdrawal outcomes. Methods: Within an institutional IS withdrawal program (n = 77), 59 recipients had evaluable outcomes by the follow-up cut-off (June 30, 2025). Among these, 31 pLT recipients underwent planned IS withdrawal (primary analytic cohort), and baseline plasma from 10 patients was analyzed via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) proteomics to identify tolerance-associated proteins and pathways. HDAC1 was subsequently quantified by ELISA in 39 recipients with baseline plasma available. The diagnostic performance of HDAC1 in distinguishing immune-tolerant (IT) from non-immune-tolerant (NIT) outcomes was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. To corroborate tissue-level consistency, HDAC1 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in baseline liver biopsy sections from 10 recipients (5 IT and 5 NIT) selected from the planned withdrawal cohort. Results: Proteomic profiling revealed distinct baseline differences enriched in neutrophil-related functions, including pathways linked to degranulation and neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation. HDAC1 was identified as a key candidate marker, with significantly lower baseline levels observed in the IT group. In the validation cohort, plasma HDAC1 demonstrated moderate discriminative performance for baseline risk stratification (AUC = 0.81). Furthermore, IHC analysis of baseline liver biopsies showed lower intrahepatic HDAC1 staining in IT recipients compared to the NIT group, consistent with the systemic plasma findings. Conclusions: Baseline neutrophil-linked proteomic signals and diminished HDAC1 expression are associated with successful IS withdrawal in pLT recipients. These findings support HDAC1 as a hypothesis-generating candidate biomarker for baseline risk stratification and provide a clinically oriented framework to refine patient selection and enhance early monitoring during IS minimization and withdrawal protocols.

Indexed as

Graft RejectionHistone Deacetylase 1Immune ToleranceImmunosuppressive AgentsLiver TransplantationNeutrophilsAdolescentBiomarkersChildChild, PreschoolCohort StudiesFemaleHumansInfantMaleProteomicsBiomarkersHDAC1 protein, humanHistone Deacetylase 1Immunosuppressive AgentsHDAC1immune toleranceimmunosuppressant withdrawalneutrophilspediatric liver transplantationplasma proteomics

Identifiers

PMID41972122
PMCPMC13061671

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.