Abstract
Renal allograft recipients have a well‐documented increased incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)‐related malignancies and preventive strategies should be specifically implemented. While in females the use of the Papanicolau test and HPV detection assay are used currently as a screening test for cervical cancer, no diagnostic procedures have been implemented to monitor HPV infection in males. The aim of this study was to test for HPV infection and to determine the spectrum of viral genotypes in urine samples of men with renal transplants. The study included 88 patients who underwent kidney transplantation between 1999 and 2005. HPV sequences were detected by nested PCR, using the broad‐spectrum consensus‐primer pairs MY09/MY11 and the new MGP system, and characterized by nucleotide sequence analysis. Overall, 43 (48.9%) samples were found positive for HPV sequences and the most common genotypes were HPV 16 (53.5%) and HPV 54 (9.3%) followed by HPV 6, 53, 56, 58, 66, 11, 12, 20, 45, 62, and 71, in descending order of prevalence. The majority of HPV 16 isolates were classified as European and only one as African‐1 variant on the basis of nucleotide signature present within the MGP L1 region. The high prevalence of HPV 16 among renal allograft recipients suggests that an HPV‐16‐based preventive or therapeutic vaccine may be effective for prevention or treatment of HPV‐related neoplasia in this group of immune compromised patients. J. Med. Virol. 82:1179–1185, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.