Immunosuppressive effect of soluble E receptors in uremic serum

Abstract The effect of serum and urine from uremic patients upon the proliferative response of lymphocytes to phytohemagglutinin and to allogeneic cells was investigated. Addition of uremic serum dialysate, to cultures performed in the presence of normal human serum, promoted a significantly higher inhibition of blastogenesis, compared with the addition of normal serum dialysate. Uremic urine and its dialysate induced degrees of depression upon the lymphocytes proliferative response equivalent to those observed with normal urine and normal urine dialysate, respectively. Absorption with sheep erythrocytes (E) removed the inhibitory effect from uremic serum and diminished significantly the inhibition induced by uremic urine. We concluded that accumulation of soluble E receptors, in uremic serum, is the main cause of its immunodepressive properties.