Intravascular degranulation of polymorphonuclear neutrophils during hemodialysis. The effects of pretreatment with colchicine.

Polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) counts, plasma activity inducing PMN aggregation, augmenting PMN adherence and chemotactic activity were estimated during hemodialysis (HD) with cuprophane membranes. All these plasma activities are accepted as related to the presence of activated complement (C). The same estimations were made for hemodialyzed patients pretreated with colchicine. The results, especially comparison of plasma activities in blood entering and leaving the dialyzer, indicate that significant amounts of activated C components are generated within the patients vascular bed. The PMN entrapped in the pulmonary microcirculation that undergo subsequent degranulation are most probably the source of these C components. This concept was confirmed by the results for patients pretreated with colchicine, who had significantly less of the activities generated in the patients own circulation.