Abstract: Objective: To investigate the correlations of NF-κBp65 activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMC) with high sensitive C-reactive protein(hs-CRP) levels and malnutrition in patients with maintenance hemodialysis.Method: 71 MHD patients were treated in our hospital from June in 2010 to May in 2011, whose treatment period was longer than 3 months and the Urea remove index(Kt/V) was greater than 1.2. MHD patients with malnutrition were 44 cases and who with good nutrition were 27 cases.The Subjective Global Assessment of nutrition(SGA),anthropometric indicators, blood biochemistry of 71 patients with MHD were detected. ELISA method was used to test the activity of NF-κBp65 in PBMC. Immune turbidimetric method was used to test the serum levels of hs-CRP. Bivariate correlation analysis was measured with Pearson linear correlation or Spearman rank correlation analysis. After controlling age, gender, height, weight, Partial correlation analysis was used for multiple factors analysis.Results:The patients with malnutrition were 44 cases in 71 MHD patients, accounting for 61.97%. The NF-κBp65 absorbance value and the hs-CRP levels in malnutrition group were higher than that of good nutrition group(P<0.01). The normalized protein catabolic rate (nPCR), hemoglobin (HB), serum albumin(ALB), serum prealbumin(PA), serum creatinine (Scr), blood urea nitrogen(BUN), triceps skinfold(TSF), mid-arm muscle circumference (MAMC), mid-arm circumference (MAC), Body mass index (BMI), gripping strength (GS) in malnutrition group were lower than that of the good nutrition group(P<0.05 or P<0.01).SGA value was positively correlated with NF-κBp65 activity and hs-CRP levels (P<0.01). NF-κBp65 activity was positively correlated with hs-CRP levels and age(P<0.01 or P＜0.05), and was negative correlated with HB,ALB,PA（P＜0.01).The hs-CRP levels was significantly negatively correlated with the HB, ALB, PA, TSF,MAMC, MAC（P＜0.05 or P＜0.01). Controlling the variables of age, gender, height and weight, the correlation of NF-κBp65 and hs-CRP with some other parameters associated with nutrition was under partial correlation analysis. The results showed that SGA value was positively correlated with NF-κBp65 activity and hs-CRP levels (P<0.01).NF-κBp65 activity was positively correlated with hs-CRP levels (r=0.777，P<0.01),NF-κBp65 activity and hs-CRP levels were negative correlated with HB,ALB,MAMC,MAC（P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).NF-κBp65 activity was negatively correlated with the PA（P＜0.01),The hs-CRP levels was not correlated with the PA.Conclusions: The incidence rate of malnutrition was higher in MHD patients.The malnutrition could be found earlier by NF-κBp65 activity than hs-CRP levels.

Key words: Kidney diseases, renal dialysis, NF-kappa B, C-reactive protein, inflammation, Malnutrition