Altered interleukin-1 production in patients undergoing hemodialysis

The capacity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to undergo spontaneous and induced interleukin-1 (IL-1) production was examined in 10 healthy controls and in 10 patients undergoing intermittent hemodialysis (HD) using cuprophane membranes. Extracellular and cytoplasmic IL-1 activity was assayed by biologic and radioimmunologic methods. Spontaneous extracellular IL-1 activity was low in the patient and the control groups. However, spontaneous cytoplasmic IL-1 activity was greatly increased in the patients. Both assays gave comparable results. In contrast, the IL-1 response to lipopolysaccharide was significantly decreased in PBMC from the patients compared to controls. From these results we conclude that PBMC from HD patients show functional signs of activation, but an impaired response to exogenous stimuli, such as endotoxin.