donorallelen

Donorallelen, or donor alleles, are the versions of genes that are carried by a donor rather than the recipient and may be transferred to the recipient through medical procedures such as allogeneic organ or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. After transplant, donor-derived cells can engraft and contribute to the recipient's tissues, leading to a state called chimerism, in which the genome of both donor and recipient is present in different cell populations.

In clinical practice, donor alleles are identified and tracked to monitor engraftment and compatibility. Techniques include HLA typing, SNP genotyping, and chimerism analysis using short tandem repeats or sequencing. The level of donor chimerism informs prognosis: full donor chimerism generally indicates successful engraftment, while mixed chimerism may be associated with relapse risk or ongoing disease.

Donor alleles are also central to immune compatibility. Differences between donor and recipient alleles, particularly at HLA loci, influence the risk of graft rejection and graft-versus-host disease. Therefore, donor selection emphasizes matching key alleles to reduce complications.

Beyond transplantation, donor alleles can be detected as donor-derived cell-free DNA in the recipient's bloodstream and serve as a biomarker for graft injury or rejection in organ transplantation.

Note: The term donorallelen is used in some language communities—English literature most commonly uses donor alleles or donor-derived alleles.