ABSTRACT
Kidney is a highly vascularized organ and peritubular capillary network constitutes the critical component of its microvascular system. Peritubular capillaries, as the main vessels for blood supply in renal tubules and renal interstitium, involve in important physiological processes in renal tubules such as energy metabolism, substance secretion and reabsorption. In recent years, it has been demonstrated that ischemia-reperfusion injury, rejection and renal fibrosis during kidney transplantation would result in compromised structural integrity and decreased number in peritubular capillaries, thus leading to interstitial fibrosis in renal allograft, which would seriously affect the long-term stability of renal function in the renal allograft. Therefore, we reviewed the structure and function of peritubular capillary, peritubular capillary and ischemia-reperfusion injury, rejection and renal allograft fibrosis, focusing on the mechanism for peritubular capillary injury in kidney transplantation and the specific changes manifested, with the aim of providing a reference for preventing and treating perioperative complications in kidney transplantation and improving the long-term prognosis of grafts.