Prevalence and genotype distribution of cytomegalovirus UL55 sequence in renal transplant recipients in north west of Iran.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the most important infections in renal transplant recipients. Kidney transplant is the last hope for the patients with end stage renal diseases. Cytomegalovirus infection can threaten patients and graft survival after transplantation. Four hundred and thirty-four renal transplant recipients contributed to this study. PCR and RFLP analyses were performed in order to determine CMV viremia and its genotypes. CMV viremia was detected in 68 (15.9%) recipients. The mean post-transplantation time in our recipients was 50 months, ranging from 1 to 354 months. Viremia was detected in 31.2%, 30.7%, 17.5%, 10.2%, and 6.4% of the recipients in 0-3, 4-6, 7-12, 13-24, and more than 24 months post-transplantation, respectively. The distribution of gB1, gB2, gB3, and gB4 genotypes was detected as 26.5%, 20.5%, 17.6%, and 5.9%, respectively. Mixed genotype infection was observed in 29.4% of the recipients. Incidence of viremia was higher in the first 6 months after the transplantation compared with the later stages. Moreover, CMV gB1 and mixed genotype infection were more common in our recipients. J. Med. Virol. 88:1622-1627, 2016.