The prognostic significance of urinary interleukin 6 in IgA nephropathy.
Our previous study has shown that interleukin 6 (IL-6), a multifunctional cytokine, is closely associated with the pathogenesis of mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (mesPGN). To investigate whether urinary IL-6 can be used as an indicator in the prognosis of patients with IgA nephropathy, we monitored IL-6 activity in the urine of patients with IgA nephropathy for 10 months and compared IL-6 activity with clinical data as well as the histological changes of the kidneys obtained from the patients. It was found that among the patients who had continuously high urinary IL-6 activity, histological progression of IgA nephropathy was observed. On the other hand, among the patients whose urinary IL-6 became undetectable during the 10-month follow-up, histological improvement of IgA nephropathy was observed. These data suggest that the measurement of urinary IL-6 is a helpful tool for monitoring the progression of IgA nephropathy.
Dohi
K
K
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Japan.
Iwano
M
M
Muraguchi
A
A
Horii
Y
Y
Hirayama
T
T
Ogawa
S
S
Shiiki
H
H
Hirano
T
T
Kishimoto
T
T
Ishikawa
H
H
D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine; D001706:Biopsy; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005920:Glomerular Mesangium / Q000473:pathology; D005922:Glomerulonephritis, IGA / Q000473:pathology / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000652:urine*; D011379:Prognosis
D015415:Biomarkers; D015850:Interleukin-6; D003404:Creatinine