Effect of cyclic nucleotides on mitogen. Responsiveness of lymphocytes from patients undergoing dialysis.

Lymphocytes from 10 asymptomatic patients undergoing hemodialysis and from eight control subjects were repeatedly cultured with exposure to various concentrations of cyclic nucleotides and theophylline in addition to mitogen. The blastogenic response of the patients' lymphocytes was inhibited by molar concentrations of dibutyryl cyclic AMP which had much less or no inhibitory effected on the response of the control subjects' lymphocytes. This suppressive effect was not potentiated by theophylline. Cyclic GMP enhanced the proliferative response of the patients' lymphocytes as well as that of the controls. In contrast to absolute counts per minute per culture, the suppression by dibutyryl cyclic AMP of mitogen-induced blastogenesis noted in this study clearly separated the in vitro behavior of the patients' lymphocytes from that of the controls' lymphocytes and may serve as a useful marker of cellular dysfunction in such patients.