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NDT Advance Access originally published online on August 22, 2005
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2005 20(11):2532-2536; doi:10.1093/ndt/gfi058
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© The Author [2005]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Original Article

Increased seroprevalence of human herpes virus-8 in renal transplant recipients in Saudi Arabia

Alhussein J. Alzahrani1, El-Harith A. El-Harith2, Jutta Milzer4, Obeid E. Obeid1, Manfred Stuhrmann2, Adel Al-Dayel3, Eltayeb A. Mohamed3, Siddig Al-Egail3, Majid Daoud3, Ayub Chowdhury3, Adnane Guella3, Ibrahim Aloraifi3 and Thomas F. Schulz4

1 Department of Microbiology, King Faisal University, Dammam and 3 Prince Sultan Research Center, King Fahad Military Medical Complex, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 2 Institute of Human Genetics, Medical University Hannover and 4 Department of Virology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Correspondence and offprint requests to: Professor El-Harith A. El-Harith, Institute of Human Genetics, Medical University Hannover, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, D-30625 Hannover, Germany. Email: dr_elharith{at}hotmail.com

Background. Human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) is a herpes virus that is always associated with Kaposi's sarcoma. Previous studies suggested a high rate of Kaposi's sarcoma in renal transplant patients in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HHV-8 in Saudi renal transplant recipients and healthy controls.

Methods. An immunofluorescence technique was used to detect antibodies to the latent nuclear antigen (LANA) of HHV-8 in renal transplant patients, members of a family affected with Kaposi sarcoma, as well as healthy controls.

Results. A significantly higher HHV-8 seroprevalence was detected in renal transplant recipients from Saudi Arabia (27 out of 150; 18%) and in members of a family affected with Kaposi sarcoma (seven out of 10; 70%) relative to the seroprevalence in healthy controls (10 out of 577; 1.7%). Seropositivity for HHV-8 in these transplant patients was not significantly influenced by: the existence of relatives with kidney failure, the donors’ country of origin, the recipients’ home region within Saudi Arabia, the haemodialysis centre, the time that elapsed since the renal transplantation operation and the immunosuppressive regimen used.

Conclusion. The present results provide some explanation for the previously noted high incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma in Saudi transplant patients.

Keywords: HHV-8 seroprevalence; immunosuppression; renal transplant recipients


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