title: Osteopontin level correlates with acute cellular renal allograft rejection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Osteopontin (OPN) is a potent proinflammatory cytokine that is upregulated in cell-mediated immunity and various inflammatory states of the kidney. However, the relationship between OPN levels plasma/urine and acute renal allograft rejection is still unknown. Therefore, we assessed the relationship between OPN levels in plasma/urine and acute cellular rejection post-renal transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical data and biologic samples of renal transplant recipients were analyzed retrospectively. Patients with biopsy-proved acute cellular rejection (ACR) (n = 22), protocol biopsy-proved non-rejection (non-R) (n = 16), and living related donors as healthy control (HC) (n = 10) were involved in this study. OPN level in plasma and urine was detected using the human OPN enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. Type and grade of ACR were diagnosed based on Banff' 03 classification criteria of renal allograft pathology. No prisoners or organs from prisoners were used in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with non-R patients and HC, plasma and urine OPN levels in ACR patients were significantly increased (P < 0.05), whereas there was no significant difference between non-R patients and HC (P > 0.05). In ACR patients, plasma OPN level was positively correlated with Banff grading of acute rejection, and a cut-off value of 24.20 ng/mL was further demonstrated a good clinical value in receiver operation characteristic curve.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data obtained suggested that assessment of OPN levels in plasma and urine, especially in plasma, should be useful in predicting and evaluating the severity of ACR in renal transplant recipients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qunye
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yongyin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ruiming
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.forename: Tongyu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053495:Osteopontin / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D053495:Osteopontin