Open AccessEvaluation of the Diagnostic Potential of uPAR as a Biomarker in Renal Biopsies of Patients with FSGS
Author(s) -
Crislaine Aparecida da Silva,
Liliane Silvano Araújo,
Maria Luíza Gonçalves dos Reis Monteiro,
Lívia Helena de Morais Pereira,
Marcos Vinícius da Silva,
Lúcio Roberto Cançado Castellano,
Rosana Rosa Miranda Corrêa,
Marlene Antônia dos Reis,
Juliana Reis Machado
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
disease markers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1875-8630
pISSN - 0278-0240
DOI - 10.1155/2019/1070495
Subject(s) - urokinase receptor , pathology , medicine , pathogenesis , biomarker , chemistry , plasminogen activator , biochemistry
Minimal change disease (MCD) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) are primary glomerulopathies leading to proteinuria, known as podocytopathies, which share syndromic and morphological similarities. Morphological similarity occurs in cases of FSGS in which the sclerotic lesion was not sampled in renal biopsy, due to the focal nature of the disease. Differentiating these entities is very important, especially in cases of suspected FSGS but with sclerotic lesion not sampled, as they are diseases that apparently have different pathogenic mechanisms and prognosis. The difference in uPAR expression in situ among these two entities may be related to a distinct molecular mechanism involved in pathogenesis. Thus, finding biomarkers involved in the pathogenesis and that can also help in differential diagnosis is very relevant. The aim of this work was to evaluate the potential of urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) as a biomarker in renal biopsies of patients with podocytopathies ( n = 38). Immunohistochemistry showed that FSGS ( n = 22) had increased uPAR expression in podocytes compared with both the MCD group ( n = 16; p = 0.0368) and control group ( n = 21; p = 0.0076). ROC curve ( p = 0.008) showed that this biomarker has 80.95% of specificity in biopsies of patients with FSGS. Therefore, uPAR presented a high specificity in cases of podocytopathies associated with sclerosis and it can be considered a potential biomarker for FSGS.