Successful treatment with retinoids in patients with lupus nephritis.
Lupus nephritis is a major manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus. Treatment with such immunosuppressive agents as corticosteroids or cyclophosphamide can decrease the progression of lupus nephritis; however, these agents have potentially severe adverse reactions. Therefore, the development of new drugs with fewer side effects is needed. Here, we report 2 patients with lupus that were treated successfully with retinoids. Initially, both patients were treated with 60 mg/d of prednisolone. However, nephrotic syndrome was not improved. Subsequently, treatment with 10 mg/d of all-trans-retinoic acid was started orally and elicited a good response, showing a decrease in proteinuria. Although additional controlled clinical studies are needed to confirm these findings, we suggest that therapy using retinoids may represent a novel approach to the treatment of patients with lupus nephritis.
Kinoshita
Koji
K
Department of Nephrology and Rheumatology, Kinki University School of Medicine, Osaka-Sayama, Osaka, Japan. kkino@med.kindai.ac.jp
Kishimoto
Kazuya
K
Shimazu
Hideki
H
Nozaki
Yuji
Y
Sugiyama
Masafumi
M
Ikoma
Shinya
S
Funauchi
Masanori
M
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008181:Lupus Nephritis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012074:Remission Induction; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D014212:Tretinoin