Background In solid organ transplantation, donor-derived immune cells are assumed to
decline with time after surgery. Whether donor leukocytes persist within kidney transplants or
play any role in rejection is unknown, however, in part because of limited techniques for
distinguishing recipient from donor cells. Methods Whole-exome sequencing of donor and
recipient DNA and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of five human kidney transplant
biopsy cores distinguished immune cell contributions from both participants. DNA-sequence …