title: Anti-interleukin-1 alpha autoantibodies in hemodialysis patients.
abstract: IL-1 activity is increased in hemodialysis patients and interest has recently been focused on IL-1 antagonism in various clinical settings. We studied the presence of anti-IL-1 alpha autoantibodies in sera from 49 hemodialysis patients, 159 kidney graft recipients and 89 chronic renal failure patients without renal replacement therapy. Within the three month study period 32.6% of the hemodialysis patients were found to present with anti-IL-1 alpha autoantibodies, in contrast to 5.6% of kidney graft recipients, 8.9% of chronic renal failure patients, and only 1.4% of healthy subjects. The presence of these autoantibodies was neither associated with primary kidney disease nor with the type of dialysis membrane we used. In addition, in antibody positive patients a pronounced increase of IL-1 alpha serum levels within a dialysis session from 14.8 +/- 4.7 pg/ml to 26.4 +/- 11.2 pg/ml (P less than 0.0005) was observed, contrasting to the more even increase from 14.1 +/- 3.1 pg/ml to 19.3 +/- 12.7 pg/ml (P less than 0.05) in the antibody negative group. Neither clinical symptoms due to adverse effects of IL-1 alpha nor some influence on erythropoiesis mediated by IL-1 alpha could be envisaged. Thus, we believe, that anti-IL-1 alpha autoantibodies, present in high frequency in hemodialysis patients, have a neutralizing effect on IL-1 alpha in these patients.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung für Nephrologie, Erste Medizinische Universitätsklinik, Universität Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sunder-Plassmann
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Sedlacek
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sunder-Plassmann
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Derfler
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Swoboda
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fabrizii
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hirschl
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Balcke
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007375:Interleukin-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D007375:Interleukin-1