Estimation of IL - 6 levels in Chronic Renal failure patients and renal transplant recipients

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was to determine the influence of uremia, hemodialysis and kidney transplantation on the levels of IL-6 in plasma and to investigate its role in acute allograft rejection. The study comprised 160 individuals who were classified into four groups The healthy controls [no = 22], chronic renal insufficiency [CRI] patients on conservative treatment [no = 46], the hemodialyzed patients [no = 46] and the transplant recipients [no = 46]. The transplant group was further subdivided into three subgroups The stable graft [no = 28], the rejection [no = 15] and the primary non- functioning graft [no = 3] subgroups. IL-6 was determined by solid phase sandwich ELISA technique using biosource international human IL-6 kit. It was concluded that plasma IL-6 levels were highly elevated in CRI and hemodialyzed patients. After transplantation, its level was within the normal range for stable graft subgroup, but it raised during pre-rejection and reached its peak during rejection and started to decline slowly after anti-rejection therapy. So, the serial monitoring of IL-6 after transplantation was recommended for the prediction of acute rejection and a further investigation on a larger scale is necessary to clarify this point