Absence of association between cytomegalovirus infection and obliterative transplant arteriopathy in renal allograft rejection.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) was recently identified, using in situ hybridization, in the coronary arteries of patients with cardiac transplant rejection, suggesting a role of CMV in the development of obliterative transplant arteriopathy in cardiac allografts. We sought to verify this observation by examining arteries in kidney transplants with intimal thickening due to chronic rejection. Eleven renal biopsies and 13 nephrectomies from 24 patients, all showing obliterative transplant arteriopathy, were collected for this study. Of these patients, six were seropositive for CMV before transplantation, three were identified as seropositive following renal transplantation, nine had no evidence of CMV infection, and clinical data were not available for an additional six patients. Paraffin-embedded renal sections were examined for the presence of CMV by immunohistochemistry in situ hybridization and polymerase chain reaction. By these methods, only one case (1/24) was demonstrated to have CMV infected cells in the renal interstitium, tubules, and glomeruli, but none (0/24) showed CMV to be located in any of the renal arteries or arterioles. Thus, our results suggest that obliterative transplant arteriopathy can occur in the absence of demonstrable CMV and is probably unrelated to direct CMV infection of the graft.