Kidney Expression of Toll Like Receptors in Lupus Nephritis: Quantification and Clinicopathological Correlations

Objective. The study aimed at locating and quantifying Toll Like Receptor (TLR) 3, 7, 8, and 9 expression in kidney of patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and correlating them with clinicopathological features. Methods. Kidney sections from 26 LN patients and 4 controls were analyzed by immunohistoch...

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Main Authors: Fabrizio Conti, Francesca Romana Spinelli, Simona Truglia, Francesca Miranda, Cristiano Alessandri, Fulvia Ceccarelli, Michele Bombardieri, Konstantinos Giannakakis, Guido Valesini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2016-01-01
Series:Mediators of Inflammation
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/7697592
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Summary:Objective. The study aimed at locating and quantifying Toll Like Receptor (TLR) 3, 7, 8, and 9 expression in kidney of patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and correlating them with clinicopathological features. Methods. Kidney sections from 26 LN patients and 4 controls were analyzed by immunohistochemistry using anti-human TLR3, TLR7, TLR8, and TLR9 polyclonal antibodies; the number of TLR-positive nuclei/mm2 was evaluated on digitalized images. Results. Compared to controls, LN showed a significantly higher amount of glomerular and tubulointerstitial TLR9 (p=0.003 and p=0.007), whole and tubulointerstitial TLR3 (p=0.026 and p=0.031), and a higher tubulointerstitial TLR7 (p=0.022). TLR9 positively correlated with activity index (p=0.0063) and tubular TLR7 with chronicity index (p=0.026). TLR9 positively correlated with Renal-SLEDAI (p=0.01). Conclusions. This is the first study quantifying kidney expressions of TLRs in LN patients; the results show an overexpression of TLR3, TLR7, and TLR9 and demonstrate a correlation with clinicopathological indices supporting a role of these mediators in the pathogenesis of LN.
ISSN:0962-9351
1466-1861