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Published on: April 19, 2017
Interleukin-31 is associated with uremic pruritus in patients receiving hemodialysis
Mei-Ju Ko1, Yu-Sen Peng2, Hung-Yuan Chen2
1Department of Dermatology, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Dermatology, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Background:
Interleukin (IL)-31 induces severe pruritus and dermatitis in transgenic mice, and is associated with many itching skin diseases.
Objective:
We sought to investigate the association of serum IL-31 levels with uremic pruritus in patients undergoing hemodialysis.
Methods:
Patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis in a referral medical center were recruited. Serum IL-31 levels were determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methodology. The various characteristics of pruritus were assessed using an interview questionnaire.
Results:
Among the 178 study participants, 34.8% had uremic pruritus. The patients with pruritus had higher serum IL-31 levels than those without pruritus symptoms (median 8.68 [first quartile 0.43, third quartile 35.04] vs 4.91 [0, 15.78], P = .04). A multivariate linear regression analysis showed that higher serum levels of IL-31, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and alanine transaminase, and a lower dialysis dose assessed by Kt/V, were independent predictors for higher pruritus intensity. The generalized additive model also showed a positive exposure-response relationship between serum levels of IL-31 and visual analog scale scores of pruritus intensity.
Limitations:
The cause-effect relationship between IL-31 and uremic pruritus could not be assessed by the cross-sectional study design.
Conclusion:
IL-31 may play an important role in the pathophysiology of uremic pruritus.
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