Uremia causes premature ageing of the T cell compartment in end-stage renal disease patients

Abstract

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients treated with renal replacement therapy (RRT) have premature immunologically aged T cells which may underlie uremia-associated immune dysfunction. The aim of this study was to investigate whether uremia was able to induce premature ageing of the T cell compartment. For this purpose, we examined the degree of premature immunological T cell ageing by examining the T cell differentiation status, thymic output via T cell receptor excision circle (TREC) content and proliferative history via relative telomere length in ESRD patients not on RRT.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to healthy controls, these patients already had a lower TREC content and an increased T cell differentiation accompanied by shorter telomeres. RRT was able to enhance CD8⁺ T cell differentiation and to reduce CD8⁺ T cell telomere length in young dialysis patients. An increased differentiation status of memory CD4⁺ T cells was also noted in young dialysis patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Based on these results we can conclude that uremia already causes premature immunological ageing of the T cell system and RRT further increases immunological ageing of the CD8⁺ T cell compartment in particular in young ESRD patients.</p