title: Low humoral responses to hepatitis C virus among pediatric renal transplant recipients.
abstract: Immunosuppressed patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) are known to have a low prevalence of antibodies to the virus. We examined 12 HCV-infected renal transplant recipients and 18 immunocompetent patients in terms of viral markers. The renal patients had a lower prevalence of anti-C100-3 antibodies and lower titers of anti-p22 than the immunocompetents. Low titers of the antibodies seemed to be characteristic of HCV, because titers of anti-mumps and anti-cytomegalovirus antibodies were the same or even increased. Quantitation of HCV RNA showed approximately 200-fold more copies of mean HCV RNA in the sera of the kidney patients than in the immunocompetents. This indicates that the low humoral responsiveness to HCV is not due to the lower concentration of the virus. Immunosuppressive conditions seemed to suppress anti-HCV production with greater magnitude than other viral antibodies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kudo
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morishima
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miwata
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsushima
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuzuki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D018936:Hepatitis C Antigens; D006801:Humans; D007121:Immunocompetence / Q000276:immunology; D016867:Immunocompromised Host / Q000276:immunology*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; C064544:C100 protein, hepatitis C virus; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D018936:Hepatitis C Antigens; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014758:Viral Core Proteins; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C499352:core protein p22, Hepatitis C virus; C069130:nucleocapsid protein, Hepatitis C virus