Depressed neutrophil chemotaxis in patients with chronic renal failure and after renal transplantation.

Polymorphonuclear leukocyte chemotaxis, phagocytosis, and bactericidal ability were tested with neutrophlis from patients with chronic renal failure on conservative therapy, from others of regular peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis, and from a group of patients who had received renal allografts. Chemotaxis was depressed in all groups. Phagocytosis was mildly impaired in the two groups on dialysis. The leukocytes of patients on conservative therapy had mildly decreased killing ability, whereas this function was normal in other groups tested. Sera from all patients, when activated with endotoxin, were poorly chemotactic to normal neutrophils, especially in those on conservative therapy and hemodialysis, but these sera functioned normally as opsonins for phagocytosis. The observed defect in chemotaxis could account, at least partly, for the frequency of bacterial infections in these patients.