Cytokine profiles in peritoneal dialysis effluent predicts the peritoneal solute transport rate in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients.

Cytokine profiles in peritoneal dialysis effluent (PDE) vary among patients of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), which may indicate the therapeutic efficiency of CAPD. We examined the cytokine profiles of PDE with stable CAPD and analyzed their relation with the peritoneal solute transport rate (PSTR). The peritoneal equilibration test (PET) was performed to evaluate peritoneal solute transport rate (PSTR) by calculating dialysate/plasma creatinine (D/P Cr). Patients were then divided into either low and low-average transport (L/A), or high and high average transport (H/A) groups according PET results. Overnight PDE were collected from 30 CAPD patients and various cytokines and growth factors were detected using the Luminex Flex Map 3D system. The concentrations of interleukin (IL)-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in dialysate were 66.4±59.8, 221±96.1 and 1.79±0.34 pg/mL respectively while IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-21, IL-22 or IL-23 could not be detected. Higher IL-6 levels were found in the H/A group as compared with the L/A group (P<0.05); however MCP-1, TNF-α, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 and VEGF levels were not significantly different between these two groups (P>0.05). We found that IL-6, MCP-1, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and TGF-β1 levels were closely correlated with each other and all significantly associated with D/P Cr. Multivariate analysis showed that D/P Cr was independently correlated with IL-6 and negatively correlated with serum albumin (r=-0.369, P=0.045). In conclusion, our study indicates that systemic analysis of cytokine profiles in PDE reveals the transport characteristics of CAPD patients. Long-term follow-up study should be necessary to further confirm the value of cytokine detection in evaluation of PD therapeutic efficiency.