End-stage renal disease, dialysis, kidney transplantation and their impact on CD4 T-cell differentiation.

Premature aging of both CD4 regulatory T (Treg) and CD4 responder-T (Tresp) cells in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is expected to affect the success of later kidney transplantation. Both T-cell populations are released from the thymus as inducible T-cell co-stimulator-positive (ICOS ) and ICOS recent thymic emigrant (RTE) Treg/Tresp cells, which differ primarily in their proliferative capacities. In this study, we analysed the effect of ESRD and subsequent renal replacement therapies on the differentiation of ICOS and ICOS RTE Treg/Tresp cells into ICOS  CD31 or ICOS  CD31 memory Treg/Tresp cells and examined whether diverging pathways affected the suppressive activity of ICOS and ICOS Treg cells in co-culture with autologous Tresp cells.

The role of age-related T-cell differentiation in patients with renal replacement therapy.

Dialysis patients have deficiencies regarding the generation of immune responses and show an increased susceptibility for infections. Persisting uremic conditions are made responsible for the increased aging of their immune system. In this study, we analyzed whether age-related differences in the differentiation of both recent-thymic-emigrant-(RTE)-regulatory (Tregs) and RTE-responder T cells (Tresps) into CD31-memory Tregs/Tresps led to differences in the suppressive activity of naive and memory Tregs on autologous Tresps between healthy volunteers and dialysis patients.