Alterations in mononuclear cell tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) response in patients on long term cuprophane haemodialysis.

We have investigated TNF-alpha secretory response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 13 uraemic patients undergoing regular haemodialysis with cuprophane membrane (CM). Sixteen healthy subjects and five uraemic patients under conservative therapy were also studied as controls. Cells of haemodialysis patients exhibited increased TNF-alpha release in vitro in the absence of activating stimuli other than culture conditions, as compared with normal and uraemic controls. In contrast to normal cells, this spontaneous secretion of TNF-alpha from dialysis PBMC could not be significantly reduced by addition of polymyxin B to culture medium, thus indicating its independence of trace amount of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) present in the medium as contaminant. Furthermore, predialysis PBMC were considerably more sensitive to stimulation with 10(7) pg/ml of LPS under in vitro culture conditions than normal and uraemic controls. To elucidate a role of direct contact with CM in stimulation of TNF-alpha release from monocytes, PBMC were cultured on CM in vitro. Contact with CM stimulated TNF-alpha secretion from PBMC above the level of cells cultured on tissue culture plastic. This response persisted with time in culture in contrast to a transient LPS-induced TNF-alpha release. Furthermore, PBMC stimulated by contact with CM for 2 days did not lose the capacity to secrete TNF-alpha in response to a subsequent LPS stimulation, while a 2-day treatment of cells with LPS was followed by LPS refractory state. Therefore, direct contact with CM induces in PBMC a long-lasting TNF-alpha response which is not down-regulated by the acquisition of refractoriness in a manner similar to that which occurs in the case of LPS stimulation. These in vitro findings provide a possible explanation of the observation that predialysis PBMC exhibit elevated TNF-alpha secretory capacity.