Novel round cells in urine sediment and their clinical implications.
BACKGROUND
Voided urine contains a variety of cells from the kidney and urinary tract and urinalysis provides us various information by investigating cellular components. We investigated urine sediment from renal impaired patients.


RESULTS
We found 'round cell' to be distinct from known cells in sediment and is close to proximal convoluted tubule-derived cells based on morphology and molecular marker expression (GGT1 but not podocalyxin). Also it was positive for undifferentiated cell markers, including PAX2, WT1, OSR1, and SIX2. They were observed in end-stage renal failure patients and the number of cells was correlated with the severity of chronic kidney disease. A prospective analysis revealed that patients who had more round cells were more likely to require hemodialysis within a year.


CONCLUSIONS
Round cells are a novel marker that can be used to predict the need for hemodialysis.
Department of Clinical Laboratory, School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Analytical Laboratory Chemistry, Graduate School of Health Care Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan.
Kenichi
K
Shukuya
Department of Clinical Laboratory, School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Division of Laboratory Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Division of Clinical Epigenetics, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Japan.
Sayoko
S
Ogura
Department of Medical Technology, Kagawa Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Kagawa, Japan.
Yasunori
Y
Tokuhara
Department of Clinical Laboratory, School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Shigeo
S
Okubo
Department of Clinical Laboratory, School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Yutaka
Y
Yatomi
Analytical Laboratory Chemistry, Graduate School of Health Care Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan.
Minoru
M
Tozuka
Department of Clinical Laboratory, School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Japan Science and Technology Agency, CREST JST, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: tshimo-tky@umin.ac.jp.
Tatsuo
T
Shimosawa
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016482:Urinalysis; D014556:Urine / Q000166:cytology*
PAX2; Renal tubular epithelial cell; Round cells; Urine sediment