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Published on: May 16, 2014
Chronic inflammation and CD16+ natural killer cell zeta-chain downregulation in hemodialysis patients
Theodoros Eleftheriadis1, Charalambos Kartsios, Efi Yiannaki
1Nephrology Department, General Hospital of Serres, Serres, Greece. teleftheriadis@yahoo.com
Background:
Natural killer (NK) cell activity is decreased in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Zeta-chain phosphorylation is an early event that follows the triggering of some NK cell-activating receptors. NK cell zeta-chain is downregulated in patients with cancer due to chronic inflammation. HD is also a chronic inflammatory state. NK cell zeta-chain expression in HD was evaluated.
Patients And Methods:
Thirty-three HD patients and 30 healthy volunteers were enrolled into the study. The CD3-CD16+ subpopulation was examined, since it corresponds to 90% of all NK cells and has the highest cytotoxicity.NK cell count and zeta-chain mean fluorescence intensity were evaluated with flow cytometry. The inflammatory markers C-reactive protein, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha were measured with ELISA.
Results:
The inflammatory markers were increased in HD patients. NK cell count did not differ between HD patients and healthy volunteers. NK cell zeta-chain mean fluorescence intensity was decreased in the patient group.
Conclusions:
Chronic inflammation could be responsible for the NK cell zeta- chain downregulation in HD patients, contributing to the decreased NK cell activity.
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