Glucose degradation products in peritoneal dialysis fluids: how they can be avoided

A patient on peritoneal dialysis (PD) uses 3-7 tons of PD fluid every year. The result is considerable stress on the peritoneal tissue. Aspects of PD fluids that have been considered responsible for bioincompatibility are low pH, high osmolality, high glucose and lactate concentrations, and the presence of glucose degradation products (GDPs). However, the relative importance of each factor in PD fluid has so far not been investigated. Discovering their relative importance was the aim of the present study.

Two main methods for investigating biocompatibility were used in this study: cytotoxicity measured as in vitro inhibition of cell growth, and in vitro AGE formation measured as albumin-linked fluorescence.

The two most important factors for determining in vitro bioincompatibility of PD fluids were the presence of GDPs, which caused both severe cytotoxicity and strong AGE promotion, and low pH, which induced severe cytotoxicity.

The biocompatibility of PD fluids can be monitored through fairly simple in vitro methods such as cell proliferation and AGE formation. Bioincompatibility of PD fluids is caused mainly by the presence of GDPs and low pH. These findings correlate well with known clinical bioincompatibility.