Urinary MCP-1 as a Biomarker for Lupus Nephritis HEBA M. SHARAF ELDIN, M.D.* and MANAL HELAL, M.D.** The Departments of Clinical & Chemical Pathology* and Internal Medicine**, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University
Despite the overall improvement in the care of SLE in the past two decades, the prognosis of lupus nephritis remains unsatisfactory. Up to 25% of patients still develop end stage renal failure 10 years after onset of renal disease [2].
Abstract Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystemic, autoimmune disorder which is episodic in nature with a broad spectrum of clinical and immunological manifestations. As the course of lupus nephritis (LN) is often unpredictable, it is important to identify reliable, noninvasive methods to repeatedly assess the condition of the kidneys in those patients during follow-up.
Renal biopsies have remained the "gold standard" of assessing lupus nephritis (LN) patients not only at diagnosis but also to assess the efficacy of treatment. But this may not always be feasible due to the invasive nature of the procedure. New laboratory tests are needed to identify renal involvement without renal biopsy [3].
To assess the potential use of monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP 1) as a marker for disease activity in LN, 56 SLE patients were recruited. They were divided into three groups, one with active LN (n=19), another with inactive LN (n=25) and a third formed of SLE patients who had no renal affection. Two other groups were added for comparison, one formed of 12 cases who had non- lupus nephritis and another of age and sex matched controls (n=19).
Recently, significant effort has been put into identifying biomarkers that can anticipate impending lupus renal flare, forecast development of chronic kidney disease, or reflect kidney histology at the time of flare 141.
Urinary MCP 1 /creatinine ratio was found to be significantly higher in the two groups of active nephritis both lupus and non lupus (p
