The influence of a single hemodialysis procedure on human T lymphocytes.

At the moment it is unknown to what extent the impaired function of T lymphocytes in ESRD patients depends on uremia, and to what extent on hemodialysis (HD) procedure. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to evaluate percentages of T lymphocyte subpopulations ex vivo, plasma concentrations of IL12p70, TNF, IL-10, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-8 cytokines and selected proliferation parameters of in vitro activated T lymphocytes in HD patients before and after single HD procedure using flow cytometry. We demonstrated that the percentage of CD8 cells ex vivo was decreased while the CD4/CD8 ratio was increased after HD procedure. Also, there was significant decrease in the percentage of CD8HLA-DR, CD8CD69 and CD8CD95 cells after HD. At the same time, an increase in the percentage of CD4CD95 cells was observed after HD. From all analyzed cytokines, only the concentration of IL-8 was significantly decreased after HD procedure. A single HD session enhanced proliferation capacity of CD4 cells but not CD8 cells in vitro by increasing number of cell divisions and percentage of dividing cells. Our results show that a single hemodialysis can have immunomodulatory effect on HD patients and may contribute to the state of immune deficiency observed in patients with ESRD.