Abstract:Plasma levels of interleukin‐iβ (IL‐iβ) were measured in 10 normal subjects, in 11 nondialyzed end‐stage renal failure (ESRD) patients, and in 22 hemodialysis (HD) patients. Of the HD patients, 7 were dialyzed with Cuprophan (CU), 7 with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and 8 with polysulphone (PS) dialyzers. In normal controls, nondialyzed ESRD patients, and HD equipped with CU, PAMM, and PS dialyzers, plasma levels of IL‐iβ were 10.73 ± 5.24 pg/ml, 9.97 ± 3.61 pg/ml, 13.17 ± 4.04 pg/ml, 15.16 ± 6.16 pg/ml, and 13.96 ± 5.47 pg/ml, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences among the groups (p ≥ 0.05). In contrast, the gene expression of IL‐iβ for peripheral blood mononu‐clear cells (PBMC) by in situ hybridization showed differences among the groups. The gene for IL‐iβ for PBMC appears in HD equipped with different membranes, but not in cases of nondialyzed uremic patients and normal subjects. With computer imaging analysis, we carried out quantitative analysis of cells in in situ hybridization with an area of positive spots to an area of total cells. In HD with CU, PMMA, and PS, the results were 10.64 ± 1.07, 3.34 ± 0.74, and 3.27 ± 0.64, respectively. The levels of IL‐iβ gene expression in CU were higher than that in PMMA or PS. There were statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.001) between CU and PMMA or PS and no significant difference between the PMMA and PS (p ≥ 0.05). We suggest measuring the gene expression of cy‐tokines for PBMC and which may be better than measuring cytokine levels only for investigating the blood compatibility of dialyzers, which may help in understanding chronic co
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