DCreg in Living Donor Liver Transplantation

August 27, 2025 updated by: Angus W. Thomson PhD DSc

Safety and Preliminary Efficacy of Donor-derived Regulatory Dendritic Cell (DCreg) Infusion and Immunosuppression Withdrawal in Living Donor Liver Transplantation

Phase I/II, single center, prospective, open-label, non-controlled, non-randomized, interventional, cohort study in which low risk living donor liver transplant (LDLT) recipients will receive a single infusion of donor-derived DCreg 1 week prior to transplantation. All patients will be maintained on MPA and Tacrolimus (Tac) for the 1st 6 months after transplantation. At that time point, recipients meeting specific criteria will be slowly weaned off MPA per standard of care over a period of 6 months. Participants will then be evaluated for TAC weaning at 1 yr after transplantation. Those who meet specific criteria be weaned off Tac over 6 months . Successfully weaned participants who remain rejection-free will undergo 3 years of follow-up after the last dose of immunosuppression.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Phase I/II, single center, prospective, open-label, non-controlled, non-randomized, interventional, cohort study in which low risk living donor liver transplant (LDLT) recipients will receive a single infusion of donor-derived DCreg with concurrent mycophenolic acid (MPA) therapy (1/2 dose) 1 week prior to transplantation. All patients will be maintained on MPA and Tacrolimus (Tac) for the 1st 6 months after transplantation. At that time point, recipients meeting specific criteria (no rejection and permissive liver function tests (LFTs)) will be slowly weaned off MPA per standard of care over a period of 6 months. Participants will then be evaluated for TAC weaning at 1 yr after transplantation. Those who meet the criteria of no rejection and permissive LFTs will undergo a protocol liver biopsy and proceed to Tac weaning over 6 months if liver biopsy is permissive. Successfully weaned participants who remain rejection-free will undergo 3 years of follow-up after the last dose of immunosuppression. They will undergo a liver biopsy at 1 yr and 3 yrs after immunosuppression withdrawal. Participants who are removed from the study protocol at any time will return to standard of care but will continue to be followed by the study team and may undergo a liver biopsy at the end of the study (4.5 yrs after transplantation). For subjects who return to standard of care (on immunosuppression at end of study), the year 4.5 biopsy will be optional.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
16

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 2
  • Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15261
        • UPMC

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 55 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Donors

  1. Able to understand and provide informed consent;
  2. Male or female between the ages of 18-55;
  3. Meet all standard institutional and UNOS criteria for liver donation;
  4. For females of childbearing potential, a negative urine or serum pregnancy test;
  5. Negative for HIV (5th generation Test and NAT), HTLV-1, HTLV-2;(*)
  6. Negative for hepatitis C (antibody and NAT), hepatitis B (surface antigen and NAT)(*)

Recipients

  1. Low risk recipient approved for LDLT, irrespective of gender, race, or ethnic background. Low risk is defined by absence of exclusion criteria (below).
  2. Between ages 18 and 75 years
  3. Undergoing de novo (first) liver transplant
  4. Female subjects of childbearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test upon study entry.
  5. Agreement to use contraception; according to the FDA Office of Women's Health (http://www.fda.gov/birthcontrol), there are a number of birth control methods that are more than 80% effective. Female participants of child-bearing potential must consult with their physician and determine the most suitable method(s) from this list to be used from the time that study treatment begins until 1 year after completion of immunosuppression withdrawal.

(*)does not preclude donors from undergoing leukapheresis but cells may not be infused into recipient.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Study arm
Living donor liver transplant recipients receiving donor-derived DCreg infusion. This is a single arm study
Biological: Regulatory Donor-Derived Dendritic Cell infusion
Regulatory dendritic cells that were prepared from a donor leukapheresis will be infused into liver transplant recipients 7 days prior to surgery
Other Names:
  • DCreg

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Preliminary Efficacy
Time Frame: 2.5 years
Proportion of patients able to achieve staged immunosuppression withdrawal with operational tolerance
2.5 years
Proportion of Safety Events
Time Frame: 6 years
1. Safety: Safety will be determined by assessing the percentage of subjects experiencing the following events: i) CTCAE Grade 4 or higher infusion reaction; ii) CTCAE Grade 4 or higher infection; iii) Malignancy other than non-melanoma skin cancer or HCC recurrence; iv) Rejection resulting in recipient death or retransplantation; v) Biopsy-proven severe acute rejection; vi) Any grade chronic rejection; vii) Non-surgical graft loss; viii) Recipient death;
6 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Donor Specific Antigen (DSA) Levels
Time Frame: 6 years
DSA levels early (<6 weeks) and late (> 6 weeks) after transplantation
6 years
Change in Renal Function
Time Frame: from baseline to 4.5 years post transplantation
Change in renal function measured by change in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)
from baseline to 4.5 years post transplantation
Change in Quality of Life
Time Frame: 1 year post-transplantation (prior to weaning) 4.5 years post transplantation
Scale title: Short Form 36 (SF-36) Quality of Life questionnaire. Minimum and maximum values 0 to 100 higher scores indicates better health.
1 year post-transplantation (prior to weaning) 4.5 years post transplantation
Change in Cardiovascular Risk Factors (Systolic Blood Pressure)
Time Frame: from baseline to 4.5 years post transplantation
from baseline to 4.5 years post transplantation
Change in Cardiovascular Risk Factors (Triglycerides)
Time Frame: from baseline to 4.5 years
from baseline to 4.5 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Angus W. Thomson PhD DSc

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
University of Pittsburgh

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Abhinav Humar, MD, University of Pittsburgh

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
August 30, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
July 15, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
July 15, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
May 10, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
May 19, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
May 23, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
September 16, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
August 27, 2025

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • STUDY19020267
  • IND#17271 (Other Identifier: FDA)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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