%0 Journal Article
%T Uremia causes premature ageing of the T cell compartment in end-stage renal disease patients
%A Meijers Ruud WJ
%A Litjens Nicolle HR
%A de Wit Elly A
%A Langerak Anton W
%J Immunity & Ageing
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1742-4933-9-19
%X Background 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. Results 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. Conclusion 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.
%K Ageing
%K CD28null
%K End-stage renal disease
%K Renal replacement therapy
%K T lymphocytes
%K Uremia
%U http://www.immunityageing.com/content/9/1/19