1Seham A. Abou-Shousha and 2Amany
Departments of 1Immunology and 2Applied
Medical Chemistry, Medical Research Institute,
Patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) show a clinical
state of immunodysfunction that occurs in both humoral and cellular immunity as
well as inflammatory response. In this study, we investigated the
mononuclear-endothelial cells (MCs/ECs) interaction and the possible protective
role of IL-2 as the main T lymphocyte activator in CRF patients. The levels of
soluble P-selectin (sP-selectin) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) as the two main
mediators of MCs/ECs interaction were measured in IL-2 supplemented and
non-supplemented peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) supernatant of CRF
patients. The obtained results were correlated with those of sex and age
matched controls. Significantly higher levels of sP-selectin and IL-8 were detected
in both IL-2 supplemented and non-supplemented PBMCs culture supernatant of CRF
patients than controls (P = 0.000). Those levels were significantly lower in
IL-2 supplemented PBMCs culture supernatant than non-supplemented ones of both
CRF (P = 0.000) (for both mediators) and normal control groups (P = 0.01, P=
0.04 for sP-selectin and IL-8 respectively). The higher sP-selectin in CRF
indicates impairment of MCs/ECs interaction that may be resulted from blockade
of P-selectin receptors on PBMCs by P-selectin molecules shedded from ECs to
plasma and bind to PBMCs in vivo. The elevated IL-8 level in PBMCs of
CRF reflect the imbalance of Th1/Th2 ratio and subsequent impairment of
cellular immunity in those patients. The lower level of both sP-selectin and
IL-