IL-18 on the rise: tracking inflammatory drift in hemodialysis patients - a pilot study

INTRODUCTION: Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine associated with inflammaging and cellular senescence in chronic kidney disease (CKD). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate longitudinal changes in plasma IL-18 levels in incident hemodialysis (HD) patients. METHODS: An observational longitudinal study was conducted, with blood and anthropometric data collected at baseline, 6, and 12 months. IL-18 was measured by ELISA, and biochemical parameters were measured using Bioclin® kits. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients (61.4 ± 3.5 years) were enrolled; 10 and 5 completed the 6- and 12-month assessments, respectively. IL-18 levels increased significantly at 6 months (p = 0.04) and at 12 months (p = 0.01) versus baseline and correlated positively with creatinine (r = 0.893; p = 0.04) and urea (r = 0.823; p = 0.05). CONCLUSION: In this pilot study with incident HD patients, plasma IL-18 increased over one year of treatment and was associated with uremia-related markers.