Anaphylatoxin formation during hemodialysis: comparison of new and re-used dialyzers.

Hemodialysis of 11 endstage renal failure patients with new cuprophan hollow fiber dialyzers produced significant leukopenia as well as increased plasma levels of both C3a and C5a antigens during the initial phases of the procedure. Formalin-fixed new dialyzers produced quantitatively similar phenomena in eight of these same patients. By contrast, hemodialysis with re-used dialyzers, that is dialyzers exposed to blood prior to formalin sterilization, produced only a 20 to 30% decline in peripheral blood leukocyte counts. Correspondingly, C3a antigen formation within re-used dialyzers was only 20% of that observed in new dialyzers. Re-used dialyzers also differed significantly from either new or formalin-fixed new dialyzers in that C3b antigen could be readily detected within them even after extensive washing. These observations suggest that C3b deposition on the cellulosic membrane surface during first use markedly diminishes the complement activating potential of cuprophan dialyzers when they are subsequently re-used.