Studies on IL-2 production and T-cell colony forming unit in patients with chronic renal failure.

To elucidate the nature of altered cellular immunity seen in patients with chronic renal failure, the values of interleukin-2 (IL-2), a kind of lymphokine, and T-cell colony forming units were measured in controls (N = 10), predialysis uremic patients (N = 14), patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis (HD, N = 11) and patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD, N = 9). Dialytic patients were selected as relatively stable cases receiving dialysis for more than 3 months. The duration of dialysis was 25.5 +/- 5.5 months in HD and 14.7 +/- 3.0 months in CAPD groups. The mean age was 30.3 years in the control, 36.1 years in the predialysis, 32.9 years in the HD and 41.1 years in the CAPD groups; all 4 groups showed male predominance. The serum creatinine concentration of each group was 1.2 +/- 0.1 mg/dl in the control, 14.1 +/- 0.9 mg/dl in predialysis, 13.5 +/- 1.3 mg/dl in HD and 14.7 +/- 0.9 mg/dl in CAPD groups. The level of IL-2 in the predialysis group was markedly lower compared to the control, HD and CAPD groups (as 3.1 +/- 0.8 unit vs. 8.8 +/- 2.2 unit, 11.8 +/- 3.0 unit and 14.9 +/- 3.4 unit, respectively, p < 0.05); the difference between the control and dialytic groups was not statistically significant.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)