T-lymphocytes in chronic renal failure.

Impairment of cellular immunity in chronic renal failure was studied by determining lymphocyte rosetting with sheep erythrocytes. There is an absolute decrease of T-lymphocytes in the peripheral blood during chronic renal failure. The effects of uremic serum, AB serum and levamisole on uremic lymphocyte rosetting were studied. T-lymphocyte rosetting with sheep red blood cells was inhibited by the addition of uremic serum, and incubation with normal serum does not restore uremic lymphocyte rosetting to normal. Pre-incubation of uremic lymphocytes with levamisole does not increase lymphocyte rosetting with sheep red blood cells. We postulate that in addition to environmental factors resulting in impaired T-lymphocyte response, there may be a metabolic or intrinsic cellular derangement in T-lymphocytes during renal failure.