ABSTRACT
Background: Mortality for COVID-19 in dialysis(HD) and kidney transplant(TX) patients(pts) is 30%. In these pts the immunology of the disease has been poorly explored. Methods: 32 HD or TX pts hospitalized for COVID-19 (COV), of which 13 with benign course(PosCOV) and 19 who died or developed ARDS(NegCOV), 10 controls(HC) and 12 HD/TX without COVID-19(PC), have been included. Lymphocytes subsets, dendritic cells(DC) and monocytes activation (MA) have been explored. Results: COV showed lower counts of CD4+, CD8+, CD56+, CD19+, DC and higher counts of terminally differentiated CD19+ compared to HC and PC;CD4+, CD8+, CD19+ and MA were significantly lower in NegCOV than PosCOV. Compared to HD, TX showed lower CD56+, pDC and MA. Conclusions: The COV group showed immunological alterations compared to HC and PC with deeper alterations of the innate immune system in TX pts with COVID-19.