Faurschou M et al. - Lupus nephritis is associated with significant alterations in renal MT-I+II-expression. These results indicate that important prognostic information can be deduced from the renal MT-I+II-expression profile in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with nephritis. Methods
Study to investigate whether the renal MT-I+II-expression profile is altered during lupus nephritis
Immunohistochemistry was performed on renal biopsies from 37 pts with lupus nephritis
4 specimens of healthy renal tissue served as controls
Clinico-pathological correlation studies and renal survival analyses were performed by means of standard statistical methods
Results
Proximal tubules displaying epithelial cell MT-I+II-depletion in combination with luminal MT-I+II-expression were observed in 31/37 of the lupus nephritis specimens, but not in any of the control sections
The tubular MT-score was positively correlated to the creatinine clearance in the lupus nephritis cohort
Tubular MT-score below the median value was a significant predictor of a poor renal outcome in renal survival analyses
Thus pts with a tubular MT-score<1.0 had a 6.2-times higher risk of developing end-stage renal disease vs pts with a tubular MT-score ≥1.0
See all
