Abstract
We investigated the relationship between IL-6 and histological changes in 4 CAPD patients (CAPD duration: 72-108 months) who underwent peritoneal biopsy (biopsy group). The IL-6 of 10 stable outpatients (CAPD duration: 28.2±3.2 months, mean±SD) was also measured as a control group. Dialysate IL-6 was measured hourly for 6 hours after 2L PD2 with 2.5% glucose was infused. IL-6 in the control patients was undetectable at 1 hour and then increased time-dependently to 29.8±3.6pg/ml at 6 hours. Four patients showed higher levels of IL-6 than the control group. Markedly high IL-6 (24.2pg/ml at 1 hour, 96.4pg/ml at 6 hour) was obtained from a patient in whom the peritoneal specimen showed massive infiltration of inflammatory cells, a high degree of fibrosis, and perivasculitis in the submesothelial layer. Our results suggest that IL-6 is a good marker for histological changes in the peritoneum, since IL-6 secretion depends on the degree of peritoneal damage.
