Serlie MJM, Strujik DG, de Blok K, Krediet RT
Differences in fluid transport between diabetic and non- diabetic patients at the onset of CAPD
17th Annual CAPD Conference
Perit Dial Int Suppl 1 (Feb) 17:S9 1997

The authors postulated that loss of transcapillary ultrafiltration (TCUF), on CAPD may be caused by the high glucose concentration in the dialysate, leading to glycation of water channels in the endothlial cells of peritoneal microvessels. If such a hypothesis were true, the authors hypothezised that then diabetics should have lower TCUF at onset of PD (due to predialysis exposure of their PD membranes to high glucose concentrations), but that the differences in TCUF between diabetics and nondiabetics should disappear after the non-diabetic patients had been exposed for several months to high glucose concentrations.

They followed PD transport in 11 diabetics and 11 nondiabetics for one year. No differences were found in solute transport between both groups at the onset of CAPD, but, shortly after beginning CAPD, the TCUF rate was lower in diabetics compared to nondiabetics as predicted. For the authors, these findings suggest that long term exposure to high glucose concentrations in diabetics prior to CAPD may cause changes in capillary wall aquaporins similar to long term exposure to high glucose concentrations in the dialysate in all CAPD patients.

Comment: This abstract is interesting as it seems to confirm the role of glucose in aquaporin alterations on PD. However we are puzzled by the fact that the authors suggest that exposure of the peritoneal capillary wall to glucose would be comparable in non dialysed diabetics and normal CAPD patients. The glucose concentration in the peritoneal cavity is obviously much higher than the concentration which could be expected in the worst diabetic patient : it is therefore difficult to make such a comparison, as we are in quite different osmotic conditions. Alternatively, from this study, we may suppose that only a slight increase in the ambient glucose level, as observed in diabetics, may alter the structure of aquaporin. One would then also expect to observe similar changes in non diabetic CAPD who are permanently exposed to high glucose solutes. (Christian Verger, M.D., Pontoise, France)

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17th Annual CAPD Conference
Basic peritoneal dialysis : Physiology
CRF by problem area : CRF and diabetes