Elevated urinary levels of cystatin C and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in Henoch-Schönlein purpura patients with renal involvement

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 25;9(6):e101026. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101026. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) is a commonest systemic vasculitis in childhood. The long-term prognosis of HSP is determined by the degree of renal involvement. The aim of this study is to search novel clinically applicable biomarkers to evaluate renal involvement in HSP patients. 20 bio-indexes in urine samples were simultaneously screened by antibody array assay. We indicated that urinary levels of cystatin C (Cys C) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in HSP patients with renal involvement were significantly higher than those without renal involvement and healthy controls. Furthermore, ELISA was used to analyze urinary Cys C and NGAL levels in HSP patients with or without renal involvement, atopic dermatitis (AD) patients and healthy controls. Our results demonstrated that urinary Cys C and NGAL levels in HSP patients with renal involvement were significantly elevated, when compared with those without renal involvement, AD patients and control subjects. In addition, by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, we demonstrated that the area under the ROC curve of NGAL (0.789) was larger than that of Cys C (0.692). Taken together, we show firstly that urinary Cys C and NGAL levels is abnormally elevated in HSP patients with renal involvement. We suggest that urinary Cys C and NGAL are novel useful biomarkers of renal involvement in HSP patients.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acute-Phase Proteins / urine*
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Biomarkers / urine*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cohort Studies
  • Cystatin C / urine*
  • Dermatitis, Atopic / diagnosis*
  • Dermatitis, Atopic / urine
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • IgA Vasculitis / diagnosis*
  • IgA Vasculitis / urine
  • Kidney / physiopathology*
  • Lipocalin-2
  • Lipocalins / urine*
  • Male
  • Prognosis
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins / urine*
  • ROC Curve
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Acute-Phase Proteins
  • Biomarkers
  • Cystatin C
  • LCN2 protein, human
  • Lipocalin-2
  • Lipocalins
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 81101198) to TC. URL: http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/ Portal0/default152.htm. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.