Blood tubing and cytokine production: Effect of sterilization

Blood tubings commonly represent an integral component, of hemodialysis cir cuits. Different factors may influence their biocompatibility, such as the type of material, the sterilization mode and the geometry. In vivo the fina l biocompatibility may be further complicated by the individual host respon se, the flow parameters, and the impact of mechanical trauma on blood's cel lular components (i.e. erythrocytes). In this ih vitro study we evaluated s ome commercially available blood tubings sterilized by different methods as to their interaction with normal leukocyte population and tested the respo nse of these cells in terms of cytokines (IL-la, IL-1Ra, TNF-alpha). As a p ositive control, leukocytes were incubated with 0.5 ng/mL of bacterial lipo polysaccharide (LPS) or with Cuprophan of comparable surface. The results s howed that cytokine production was markedly reduced, particularly in the ca se of gamma -ray-sterilized tubings. Of interest, it was not always related to the adherence. However in some cases, particularly of gamma -ray steril ization, adherence was none, despite the cytokine production.