Baseline anti-CMV cellular immunity is similar between patients with a kidney transplant or receiving hemodialysis.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) monitoring and risk stratification post kidney transplantation is a major issue. Cellular immunity is critical to control CMV infection and may be assessed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based interferon (IFN)-gamma release assay: QuantiFERON(R)-CMV (QF-CMV). In this monocentric study, we prospectively assessed the results for QF-CMV in kidney-transplant (KT) patients, chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients and healthy controls (HC). QF-CMV assay was blinded performed. Sixty sero-CMV positive patients were included (20 KT, 20 HD, and 20 HC). No statistical difference was found in post stimulation IFNgamma secretion using the QF-CMV assay between the three groups. The median QF-CMV response was 1.05 [0 - 10] UI/ml in the KT group, 0.99 [0 - 10] UI/ml in the HD group, and 4.28 [0 - 10] UI/ml in the HC group, p= 0.47. Time since transplantation was negatively correlated to anti-CMV INFgamma secretion (p=0.03, r= -0.49). Moreover, we found no difference in the percentage of positive test: 65%, 71%, and 79% of positive tests, respectively, in the KT, HD and HC groups; p= 0.79). In conclusion, we found that baseline cellular immunity against CMV did not statistically differ between KT, HD patients and HC using the QF-CMV assay.