title: Potential effects of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in renal transplant recipients.
abstract: Besides its effects on bone metabolism, calcitriol has an important immunomodulatory effect, which may be protective for a renal allograft. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of oral calcitriol administration in renal transplant recipients. One hundred ten renal transplant recipients (78 men, 32 women) of mean age 35.2 +/- 11.4 years and mean posttransplantation follow-up of 50.7 +/- 22.9 months were entered into the study. Patients in group 1 (n = 57) received calcitriol therapy and patients in group 2 (n = 53) did not. The mean start of calcitriol therapy was 22.4 +/- 19.1 months posttransplantation. We restrospectively collected pretransplantation and posttransplantation laboratory and clinical data as well as creatinine levels before and after the initiation of calcitriol therapy at 6-month intervals for 2 successive years. There were no significant differences in terms of age, gender, immunosuppression, bone mineral densitometry, and follow-up. Our results showed that patients in group 1 had lower pretransplantation and postransplantation body mass index (P < .03; P < .03, respectively), lower posttransplantation third year parathyroid hormone levels (P < .02), and lower requirements for pulse steroid doses (P < .04). Using Friedman repeated measures variance test to analyze the effect of calcitriol, the increase in creatinine levels was significantly lower in group 1 (P < .04). There was no significant difference between follow-up time and calcitriol dose (P > .05). In conclusion, calcitriol therapy may reduce the rate of loss of renal function among patients receiving renal transplants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Başkent University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sezer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uyar
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Arat
authors.forename: F N
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haberal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015519:Bone Density / Q000187:drug effects; D002117:Calcitriol / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010281:Parathyroid Hormone / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D010281:Parathyroid Hormone; D003404:Creatinine; D002117:Calcitriol