iii
Abstract
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major problem frequently observed in cardiac transplant
recipients. Calcineurin inhibitors, which have become the cornerstone of immunosuppressive
treatments in solid organ transplantation, are considered a major cause of post-transplant renal
dysfunction. Several other factors such as recipients’ demographic, clinical and genetic
characteristics also contribute to this phenomenon, but it remains rather difficult to determine
which patients present the highest risk of CKD after transplantation. Discovery of new genetic
markers of renal dysfunction could one day lead to individualization of immunosuppressive
therapy according to each patient’s genetic profile. However, transplant patients’ opinions
towards pharmacogenomic testing remain unknown, and it is unclear whether these differ
from healthy individuals’ opinions. This doctoral thesis thus aims: 1- To describe the very
long-term evolution of renal function after transplantation and to identify demographic and
phenotypic markers associated with postheart transplant CKD; 2- To identify genetic markers
associated with calcineurin inhibitor-induced nephrotoxicity; 3- To assess and to compare the
attitudes of patients and healthy individuals concerning the potential integration of
pharmacogenomic markers in clinical practice. Three projects have been conducted to answer
these questions. The first one relies on a retrospective analysis of the evolution of renal
function in patients who received a heart transplantation at our institution between 1983 and
2008. We discovered that deterioration of renal function continues up to 20 years after
transplant and that risk factors of CKD include, among others, advanced age, female gender,
pretransplant renal dysfunction, hypertension, hyperglycemia and use of prednisone. The
second project is a pharmacogenomic study looking at genetic determinants of calcineurin
inhibitor-induced nephrotoxicity. We were able to illustrate for the first time that a genetic
polymorphism related to PRKCB (gene encoding protein kinase C-β) is associated with renal
function in heart transplant patients, whereas it is probably not the case for polymorphisms in
TGFB1 (gene encoding transforming growth factor-β1). The third section of this thesis reports
the results of a questionnaire whose purpose was to compare the attitudes towards
pharmacogenomic testing in a group of healthy volunteers, cardiac transplant recipients and
heart failure patients. This study demonstrated that, although enthusiasm regarding
pharmacogenomics is shared equally among these individuals, preoccupations related to