title: Urinary fibrinogen and renal tubulointerstitial fibrinogen deposition: Discriminating between primary FSGS and minimal change disease.
abstract: Primary focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and minimal change disease (MCD) are common types of primary glomerular disease; they share numerous clinical and pathological similarities but have different treatment regimens and prognoses. It is therefore necessary to distinguish between them and to explore the mechanism underlying their differences. Fibrinogen is reportedly involved in podocyte damage and in renal fibrosis in vitro and in animal models of kidney disease. We thus tested urinary fibrinogen, serum fibrinogen, and renal fibrinogen deposition levels in a cohort comprising 50 patients with FSGS and 40 patients with MCD. Our results suggested that urinary fibrinogen and renal interstitial fibrinogen deposition levels were significantly higher in the FSGS patients than in the MCD patients, while serum fibrinogen levels did not differ between the groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed an excellent diagnostic ability for urinary fibrinogen and a fair diagnostic ability for tubulointerstitial fibrinogen deposition in differentiating FSGS from MCD. Additionally, we found that urinary fibrinogen levels were positively correlated with the 24-h urine protein levels in patients with FSGS but not in patients with MCD. In conclusion, urinary fibrinogen and renal interstitial fibrinogen deposition is elevated in primary FSGS compared to MCD, which may be relevant to both diagnosis and pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: National Clinical Research Center of Kidney Diseases, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210002, PR China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Clinical Research Center of Kidney Diseases, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210002, PR China.
authors.forename: Chunxia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: National Clinical Research Center of Kidney Diseases, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210002, PR China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: National Clinical Research Center of Kidney Diseases, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210002, PR China. Electronic address: liuzhihong@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000652:urine*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D005923:Glomerulosclerosis, Focal Segmental / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D007684:Kidney Tubules / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009402:Nephrosis, Lipoid / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine*; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000150:complications / Q000652:urine; D012372:ROC Curve; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005340:Fibrinogen
keywords: Biomarker; Fibrinogen; Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis; Minimal change disease; Nephrotic syndrome