Immune response following liver transplantation compared to kidney transplantation: usefulness of monitoring peripheral blood CD4+ adenosine triphosphate activity and cytochrome P450 3A5 genotype assay.

Seventy living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) and 39 kidney transplantation (KT) patients were randomly screened by using the peripheral blood CD4+ adenosine triphosphate activity (ATP) assay (IMK assay). The patients were divided into 2 groups in each organ transplantation with low IMK ATP level (<225 ng/mL) or high (>225) (LT-L: n = 23, KT-L: n = 19, LT-H: n = 47, and KT-H: n = 20, resp.). The incidence of bacterial and/or viral infection was significantly higher in LT-L group than in LT-H group (74.0 versus 8.5%: P < 0.001). Occurrence of total viral infection in KT-L was also significantly higher than that in KT-H (36.8 versus 10%: P = 0.046). The sensitivity and specificity of the IMK assay for identifying risk of infection was 0.810 and 0.878 in LDLT patients and 0.727 and 0.607 in KT patients. The percentage of LDLT patients with cytochrome P450 3A5 (CYP3A5) *1/*1 or *1/*3 genotype (expressors) was significantly higher in LT-L group than in LT-H group (53.8 versus 20.7%: P = 0.032). In both LDLT and KT patients, the IMK assay can be useful for monitoring immunological aspects of bacterial and/or viral infection. CYP3A5 expressors in LT-L group are related to postoperative infections.