ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the prevalence of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection and plasma level of its neutralizing antibody in hypertension patients, so as to discuss the association between HCMV infection and hypertension. Methods: A total of 51 anti-coagulated blood samples were collected from hypertension patients and the 50 control samples were obtained from age- and sex-matched healthy controls in the Second People's Hospital of Anhui Province from Jan. 2013 to Apr. 2013. Neutralizing antibody level was analyzed by rapid fluorescence micro-neutralization; plasma anti-HCMV IgG and anti-HCMV IgM were determined by enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA), and HCMV UL93 DNA was detected by nested PCR. Results: The positive rates of HCMV UL93 DNA and anti-HCMV IgG in hypertension patients were significantly higher than those in healthy controls (72.55% vs 56.00% for UL93 DNA and 70.59% vs 50.00% for IgG, P0.05). The geometric mean titer of HCMV neutralizing antibody was 38.56 ±20.42 in hypertension patients, which was significantly lower than that in healthy controls (60.12 ± 25.38, P = 0.0326). Conclusion: HCMV positive rate is higher in hypertension patients than in healthy controls; however, the specific neutralizing antibody level of HCMV is greatly lower than that in healthy controls, suggesting that the humoral immune status is declined in hypertension patients and there is a correlation between HCMV infection and hypertension.