Effect of adding Mycophenolate mofetil in paediatric renal transplant recipients with chronical cyclosporine nephrotoxicity

Cyclosporine(CyA) has made a great impact on 1-year allograft survival, however, after years, renal function deteriorates, possibly due to chronic toxicity. Recently, Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) was introduced as a non-nephrotoxic immunosuppressant that might be effective in chronical transplant arteriolopathy. We therefore started MMF at a dose of 600 mg/m(2) b.i.d. in 18 pediatric renal transplant recipients (10.8 +/- 3.9 (SD) years of age at transplantation, 11/18 with a history of rejections) with biopsy-proven chronic arteriolopathy and other signs of CyA toxicity at a mean follow up time of 6.2 +/- 2.7 (range 2.3-11.8) years after transplantation. One month prior to conversion, mean serum creatinine was 171 +/- 96 mu mol/l, lower than at the time of conversion (188 +/- 100 mu mol/l, P = 0.003, paired t-test). At last follow-up (median 13.7 months, range 5.0 to 25.0 months) after conversion, mean serum creatinine decreased significantly to 127 +/- 69 mu mol/l (P = 0.0003, paired t-test). The CyA dosage was reduced from a mean of 150 +/- 39 mg/m(2) per day to 59 +/- 13 mg/m(2) per day in 7 patients, and CyA was discontinued in 11 patients after a median period of nine months (range 1-18 months). After a median period of 21 days, a pharmacokinetic profile was performed in all patients. The mean MMF dose was 1117 +/- 319 mg/m(2) per day (range 675-1774 mg/m(2) per day). The mean Mycophenolic acid (MPA) trough concentration was 4.0 +/- 2.0 mu g/ml, range 1.4-7.9 mu g/ml. Mean 12 h MPA AUC was 70.6 +/- 28.1 (range 31.9-127) mu g x h/ml. Except for one patient with diarrhea associated with a high AUG, and for one patient with a steroid-sensitive rejection episode after 566 days, no other patient experienced side effects or a rejection episode. Prednisolone was left unaltered at 2-4 mg/m(2) per day. We conclude that MMF allows safe reduction of CyA with markedly better graft function, suggesting that chronical CyA-toxicity partially accounts for deteriorating allograft function.