title: Relationship between susceptibility to apoptosis and Fas expression in peripheral blood T cells from uremic patients: a possible mechanism for lymphopenia in chronic renal failure.
abstract: Chronic renal failure (CRF) is often complicated by lymphopenia, which may be partly responsible for immune deficiency. We hypothesized that lymphopenia in CRF might result from apoptosis of T cells in vivo. To elucidate the involvement of Fas antigen which mediates apoptosis, we analyzed Fas expression on peripheral blood T cells in uremic non-dialyzed (non-HD) patients and hemodialysis (HD) patients. T cells from both uremic groups expressed Fas with higher intensity than control T cells. When two uremic groups were compared, Fas intensity on T cells was significantly higher in non-HD patients than in patients on HD. Moreover, uremic T cells were shown to undergo accelerated apoptosis when cultured in vitro, in correlation with Fas expression. Our results suggest that T cells in CRF may undergo apoptosis by the Fas system and that hemodialysis treatment has beneficial effects in the light of the inhibition of T cell apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Nagoya University Branch Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinzato
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Amano
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Takai
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miwa
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakane
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yoshikai
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maeda
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D008231:Lymphopenia / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000097:blood; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D019014:fas Receptor / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D019014:fas Receptor