<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Untreated human cytomegalovirus (CMV)
disease (CMVD) is an identified
risk factor for reduced rates of
patient (and
graft )
survival ,
death or retransplantation in
kidney transplant recipients due to increased immunological tolerance after
transplant .
Vitamin D receptor (VDR)
gene polymorphisms have an obvious relationship with
autoimmune diseases but the relationship between VDR
gene polymorphisms and CMVD are not well understood. This study investigated the relationship between VDR FokI and ApaI
gene polymorphisms and CMVD, and their value for predicting
risk of CMVD.</p><p><b>
METHODS </b>Ninety-eight
kidney transplantation recipients were randomly chosen for which peripheral
blood samples and
case histories for the first three months after
kidney transplantation were obtained. Using
polymerase chain reaction -
restriction fragment length polymorphisms , 30 recipients were found to be homozygous for the FokI
gene (FF), 47 heterozygous (Ff), and 21 were homozygous (ff). Likewise,
similar analyses determined that 12 recipients were homozygous for the ApaI
gene (AA), 36 heterozygous (Aa), and 50 homozygous (aa). Factors affecting the
prognosis of the
kidney transplantation were compared for all
genotypes by
statistical analysis before operation.
Infection by CMV for all recipients was detected by
immunofluorescence assay to
diagnose CMVD.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>No statistical significance was observed for the factors affecting the
prognosis of the
kidney transplantation between both
genotypes ; however, statistical differences in CMVD among the FokI
genotypes were identified. It was determined that the
risk of CMVD was significantly increased for recipients of the ff
genotype than for other
genotypes . There was no statistical significance observed for CMVD among ApaI
genotypes .</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The recessive f allelic
gene of VDR can be regarded as a
risk factor of CMVD while FF recipients have lower
incidence of CMVD after
kidney transplantation . ApaI
genotypes showed no relationship with predisposition to CMVD.</p>