Leukotriene release from neutrophils of patients on hemodialysis with cellulose membranes.

The role of cytokines in patients with chronic renal failure is currently under investigation. We therefore studied the release of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) from polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) in stable dialysis patients treated with two different cellulose membranes, Cuprophan and Hemophan, a modified cellulose with less complement activation. Six patients were treated for four weeks with Cuprophan then switched to Hemophan for another four weeks. Before and after the last treatment of each period, PMN were separated from 20 ml heparinized blood by FICOLL density gradient centrifugation. Portions of 5 x 10(6) PMN were resuspended in Hanks' buffer and stimulated for 5 minutes with calcium ionophore A23187 (5 micrograms/ml). LTB4 in cell supernatants was determined by specific radioimmunoassay. PMN from dialysis patients before HD released significantly (p less than 0.01) more LTB4 than healthy donors. No significant difference between pre- and post-dialysis values was observed with Cuprophan or Hemophan dialyzers. Our data suggest that the acute effects of blood membrane interaction with either complement activating or non-activating dialyzers do not lead to changes in post-dialysis leukotriene metabolism, but leukotriene production is enhanced chronically in dialysis patients.