title: [Serum and urinary interleukin-6 levels in patients with primary glomerulonephritis].
abstract: Several studies have suggested that the measurement of urinary interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a helpful tool for diagnosis and monitoring the progression of glomerulonephritis. The aim of this study was to determine if IL-6 level might reflect the histological type of glomerular lesions. We performed a prospective study of 43 patients who underwent renal biopsy in our hospital. There were 35 male and 8 female patients with median age of 30.5 years (range 19-50). Included among these were 13 cases of IgA nephropathy, 11 cases of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, 6 cases of poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis, 6 cases of mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis, 5 cases of membranous nephropathy and 2 cases of C3 nephritis. IL-6 was measured by ELISA (Lucernachem, Switzerland). IL-6 was not detected in the serum and rine of 15 healthy controls. IL-6 was elevated in the urine of 30 patients with different histological types of glomerular lesions (range 3.7 to 433.3 pg/ml) but was not detected in the urine of remaining 13 patients. The presence of IL-6 in the urine in absence of raised serum IL-6 suggests that urinary IL-6 was produced by the kidney. We have concluded that urinary IL-6 level can be considered as a marker of glomerulonephritis but not one that is very specific for any particular histological type of primary glomerulonephritis. Thus, the urinary IL-6 level is not a useful tool in the differential diagnosis of primary glomerulonephritis. We need further studies to determine whether urinary IL-6 level could by considered for monitoring of disease activity and therapy.
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Nephrology, Military Medical Academy, Belgrade.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hrvacević
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Topalov
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stojanović
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lilić
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dimitrijević
authors.forename: Dj
authors.initials: Dj
authors.lastname: Maksić
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marić
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine*; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6
vernacular_title: Nivo interleukina sest u serumu i urinu bolesnika s primarnim glomerulonefritisom.