[Apoptosis in uremic complication]

Chronic renal failure (CRF) is often complicated by lymphopenia and sometimes by hepatic dysfunction. To elucidate the involvement of apoptosis in these complications, we analyzed Fas antigen which mediates apoptosis on peripheral blood T cells and hepatic cells. T cells from uremic patients expressed Fas with higher intensity than control T cells. When cultured in vitro, uremic T cells were shown to undergo acceleratd apoptosis in correlation with Fas expression. Immunohistological analysis of liver tissues revealed that hepatocytes in patients both with chronic hepatitis and with CRF expressed higher levels of Fas than those in patients alone with chronic hepatitis. These results suggest that T cells and hepatocytes in CRF may undergo apoptosis by the Fas system.