Background: Patients on chronic hemodialysis (HD) suffer from general immune incompetence, resulting in a high incidence of infectious complications, impaired response to vaccinations and a high incidence of malignancy. Although various abnormalities in T cell function of HD patients have been described, it remains unclear whether this is due to an intrinsic T cell defect. Aim: In the present study we tested the capacity of T cells to proliferate upon stimulation with antigen-presenting cell and T-cell-derived cytokines. Methods: The proliferation capacity of lymphocytes obtained from patients on HD and healthy controls was determined by measuring the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) after stimulation with rhIL-2, rhIL-15, rhTNF-α, or combination of those cytokines. In all samples the percentage of α/β TCR-positive T cells was measured. Results: After isolation of PBMC the percentage of T cells varied from 70% (before stimulation) to 80% (after stimulation). IL-2, IL-15 and TNF-α all induced PBMC proliferation, while the combination TNF-α plus IL-2 or TNF-α plus IL-15 appeared to be additive. No difference between PBMC from HD patients and controls was found. Conclusion: We conclude that lymphocytes from HD patients have no intrinsic defects in their proliferation capacity after stimulation with IL-2, IL-15 or TNF-α, in vitro, as the increase in counts per minute is predominant.

Keywords:
Interleukin-2, Interleukin-15, Tumor necrosis factor-α, Lymphocyte proliferation, Hemodialysis
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© 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel
2003
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