Seroprevalence of Human Herpes Virus-8 in Renal Transplant Recipients: A Single Center Study From Iran

The long-term risk of malignancy among renal transplant patients is approximately 100
times that of the general population. Unlike North America and many European
countries, Kaposi’s sarcoma is the most common cancer after renal transplantation in most
series reported from the Middle East. Human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) has a major role in
the pathogenesis of Kaposi’s sarcoma. The risk of posttransplantation Kaposi’s sarcoma is
23% to 28% among seropositive patients compared with 0.7% among seronegative
patients. This study was conducted to investigate the seroprevalence of HHV-8 among our
transplant recipients. The sera from 100 renal transplant recipients were examined by
indirect immunofluorescence against latent nuclear antigen. Sixty of 100 patients were
males. The overall mean age was 41.1 years (range, 17–74 years) with 17 patients older
than 55 years. The mean transplantation duration was 41.6 months. Twenty-five percent of
patients were seropositive for HHV-8. There was statistically significant seropositivity for
HHV-8 among recipients older than 55 years (P � .02). Eight of 17 patients older than 55
years were seropositive (47%), whereas 17/83 patients younger than 55 years were
seropositive (20%). There were no significant differences for HHV-8 seropositivity
regarding sex, transplantation duration, and immunosuppressive regimen, including dose
of immunosuppressive drugs and cyclosporine blood levels. In this study, we showed
seropositivity for HHV-8 among a significant percentage of our renal transplant recipients,
a finding which may render them at risk to develop Kaposi’s sarcoma. Seropositive and
seronegative patients were followed for 16 months. One HHV-8 seropositive patient (1/25)
developed Kaposi’s sarcoma