Plasma pentosidine levels in uremic patients before and after hemodialysis.

Pentosidine, a fluorescent cross-link, is one of the advanced glycosylation end-products. It accumulates in human tissues, plasma and urine in diabetic and uremic patients. Using SP-Sephadex C-25 in the pretreatment for reversed-phase HPLC, we determined pentosidine levels in plasma before and after hemodialysis using cuprophane membranes from 18 patients (9 diabetic, 9 nondiabetic) with end-stage renal disease, as well as examined the hemodialysis efficiency of plasma pentosidine. We also measured beta 2-microglobulin levels in plasma before and after hemodialysis. The values of plasma pentosidine did not significantly change after hemodialysis. Also, plasma beta 2-microglobulin was not removed by hemodialysis. Hemodialysis efficiency of plasma pentosidine and beta 2-microglobulin was nil. In addition, there was a significant correlation between plasma levels of pentosidine and beta 2-microglobulin before hemodialysis in 116 uremic patients. The results indicated that hemodialysis could not eliminate pentosidine from plasma; therefore, pentosidine retention by the diseased kidney might be a major cause of elevated levels of pentosidine with uremia.