Elimination of cytokine and soluble cytokine receptors by carbon sorbents from blood

Introduction

As has been seen in several studies, many authors describe details of different cytokines' elimination from blood serum by carbon sorbents. Some data have been published about carbon immobilization of cytokines bounded and nonbounded in complexes with specific cytokine receptors. The aim of the present study was to research cytokine and soluble cytokine receptor elimination by carbon sorbents from blood.

Methods

The blood samples from 28 cancer patients with sepsis before and after extracorporeal detoxification by Adsorba 300C (Gambro, Sweden) were analyzed. The sorbent washouts were also tested. We evaluated cytokine levels (IL-1β, IL-6, TNFβ) and their soluble receptors (sIL-1RII, sIL-6R, sTNFRI) in the samples.

Results

Our experiments showed that, after hemoperfusion, the cytokine levels in blood decreased or did not change compared with the initial cytokine level. At the same time the soluble cytokine receptor level increased considerably after the procedure (from 1.7 to 2.6 times). The cytokine level in the sorbent washouts was also very high. Therefore, the soluble receptor level was lower in the washouts than in the serum.

Conclusions

These results can partially be explained by the ability of carbon sorbent to eliminate cytokine molecules more actively than cytokine receptors. Therefore, it is tempting to suppose that carbon hemosorption leads to a considerable reduction of serum cytokines, bounded and soluble, but preserves the soluble receptors. These peptide molecules play an important role in the formation of adequate anti-inflammatory response.