Introduction. T and B lymphocytes play crucial roles in adaptive immunity. These cells are negatively affected in multiple disorders, including chronic kidney disease. The purpose of this study was to compare T and B lymphocyte ratios between patients with chronic kidney disease and healthy controls.

Methods. In this study, we evaluated the percentages of patient and donor (healthy control) lymphocytes referred to our laboratory between 2012 and 2014. In total 103 patient-donor couples were tested by the FCXM method. CD3-PerCP and CD19-PE monoclonal antibodies were used in order to differentiate T and B cells, respectively. T and B cell percentages of the participants were statistically compared.

Results. The mean age of the investigated patients and donors was 36.3 ± 13.7 and 46.2 ± 12.4 years, respectively. Of the studied patients, 45.6% and 54.3% were female and male, whereas 54.3% and 45.6% of donors were female and male, respectively. In the investigated group, 42 patients were preemptive, 45 subjects were treated with haemodialysis, and 16 individuals were on peritoneal dialysis. T and B lymphocyte percentages in the healthy group were higher than in patients with chronic kidney disease. However, the difference reached statistical significance only for T lymphocytes (p < 0.05). The percentages of total lymphocytes, and T and B lymphocytes in patients treated with haemodialysis were numerically lower than in those on peritoneal dialysis. In addition, we found that patients with chronic kidney disease had lower concentrations of haemoglobin and albumin than healthy controls.

Conclusion. This study suggests that patients with advanced chronic kidney disease have lower rates of lymphocytes that healthy controls. This fact may at least partially explain impaired immunity in this setting. However, our findings require confirmation and detailed investigation of underlying mechanisms in further studies.