title: The relationship between serology of hepatitis E virus with liver and kidney function in kidney transplant patients.
abstract: Although hepatitis E virus (HEV) is well known to cause acute hepatitis, there are reports showing that HEV may also be responsible for progression of acute to chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis in patients receiving organ transplantation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of HEV in patients with kidney transplantation. In this study, 110 patients with kidney transplantation were recruited, and anti-HEV IgG, creatinine, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the first, third and sixth months after renal transplantation were measured. The mean serum anti-HEV IgG titers in the study participants was 1.36 (range 0.23 to 6.3). Twenty-three patients were found to be seropositive for HEV Ab defined as anti-HEV IgG titer > 1.1. The difference in liver and renal function tests (creatinine, eGFR, AST, ALT and ALP) at different intervals was not significant between patients with HEV Ab titers higher and lower than 1.1 (p > 0.05). However, an inverse correlation was observed between HEV Ab and eGFR values in the first (p = 0.047, r = -0.21), third (p = 0.04, r = -0.20) and sixth (p = 0.04, r = -0.22) months after renal transplantation in patients with HEV Ab < 1.1 but not in the subgroup with HEV Ab > 1.1. Also, a significant correlation between age and HEV Ab levels was found in the entire study population (p = 0.001, r = 0.33). Our findings showed a high prevalence of seropositivity for anti-HEV IgG in patients receiving renal transplants. However, liver and renal functions were not found to be significantly different seropositive and seronegative patients by up to 6 months post-transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Kidney transplantation Complications Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Abbas Ali
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Zeraati
authors.affiliation: Kidney transplantation Complications Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nazemian
authors.affiliation: Kidney transplantation Complications Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Ladan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Takalloo
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; Metabolic Research Centre, Royal Perth Hospital, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
authors.forename: Amirhossein
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sahebkar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Imam Reza Hospital , Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Elahe
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heidari
authors.affiliation: Endocrine Research Center, Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Yaghoubi
keywords: alanine aminotransferase; alkaline phosphatase; aspartate aminotransferase; creatinine; hepatitis E; kidney transplant