Background: Lupus nephritis (LN) is a major complication of systemic lupus erythematosus. Like other types of glomerulonephritis, podocyte injury has been observed in patients with LN. However, the association between podocyte injury and kidney prognosis in patients with LN has not been well elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlomerulomegaly and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis are histopathological hallmarks of obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG). Podocyte injury and subsequent depletion are regarded as key processes in the development of these glomerular lesions in patients with ORG, but their impact on long-term kidney outcome is undetermined. Here, we correlated clinicopathological findings and podocyte depletion retrospectively in patients with ORG.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Acute kidney injury (AKI) diagnosis often lacks a baseline serum creatinine (Cr) value. Our study aimed to create a regression equation linking kidney morphology to function in kidney donors and chronic kidney disease patients. We also sought to estimate baseline Cr in minimal change disease (MCD) patients, a common AKI-predisposing condition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKey Points: The first study that estimated single-nephron GFR (SNGFR) in patients with membranous nephropathy (MN). Associations of SNGFR with MN staging by electron microscopy and clinicopathologic findings were cross-sectionally investigated. This study illustrates a role for disease-specific GBM structural lesions as determinants of SNGFR in patients with MN.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpansion microscopy physically enlarges biological specimens to achieve nanoscale resolution using diffraction-limited microscopy systems. However, optimal performance is usually reached using laser-based systems (for example, confocal microscopy), restricting its broad applicability in clinical pathology, as most centres have access only to light-emitting diode (LED)-based widefield systems. As a possible alternative, a computational method for image resolution enhancement, namely, super-resolution radial fluctuations (SRRF), has recently been developed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: An insufficient decrease in nocturnal pulse rate (PR), non-dipping PR, reflects autonomic imbalance and is associated with cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. We aimed to investigate the clinical and microanatomical structural findings associated with the non-dipping PR status in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Methods: This cross-sectional study included 135 patients who underwent ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and kidney biopsy concurrently at our institution between 2016 and 2019.
Podocyte loss and resultant nephron loss are common processes in the development of glomerulosclerosis and chronic kidney disease. While the cortical distribution of glomerulosclerosis is known to be non-uniform, the relationship between the numbers of non-sclerotic glomeruli (NSG), podometrics and zonal differences in podometrics remain incompletely understood. To help define this, we studied autopsy kidneys from 50 adults with median age 68 years and median eGFR 73.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Single-nephron dynamics in progressive IgA nephropathy (IgAN) have not been studied. We applied novel methodology to explore single-nephron parameters in IgAN.
Methods: Nonglobally sclerotic glomeruli (NSG) and globally sclerotic glomeruli (GSG) per kidney were estimated using cortical volume assessment unenhanced computed tomography and biopsy-based stereology.
Extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID-19 have gained attention due to their links to clinical outcomes and their potential long-term sequelae. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) displays tropism towards several organs, including the heart and kidney. Whether it also directly affects the liver has been debated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN) is an important cause of acute kidney injury (AKI) and advanced CKD. Only a limited number of studies have reported etiology-based differences in the clinical and/or histopathological properties and kidney outcomes of the biopsy-proven TIN.
Methods: Patients with biopsy-proven TIN identified from 2005 to 2016 in five hospitals were categorized based on the etiologies and were retrospectively analyzed in relation to the clinicopathological findings and kidney outcomes.
The kidney is one of the target organs that may show health disorders as a result of obesity. Obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG) is a kidney disease category based on a biopsy diagnosis that may occur secondary to obesity. Detailed clinicopathologic observations of ORG have provided significant knowledge regarding obesity-associated renal complications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Recent studies have revealed the pivotal role of complement activation in the pathogenesis of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated glomerulonephritis (ANCA-GN). This study investigated the clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of glomerular C3 deposition in the renal histopathology of patients with ANCA-GN.
Methods: We retrospectively identified 142 patients with ANCA-GN from 6 hospitals in Japan (2004-2020).
Am J Physiol Renal Physiol
September 2021
Low birth weight is a risk factor for chronic kidney disease, whereas adult podocyte depletion is a key event in the pathogenesis of glomerulosclerosis. However, whether low birth weight due to poor maternal nutrition is associated with low podocyte endowment and glomerulosclerosis in later life is not known. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a normal-protein diet (NPD; 20%) or low-protein diet (LPD; 8%), to induce low birth weight, from 3 wk before mating until (PN21), when kidneys from some male offspring were taken for quantitation of podocyte number and density in whole glomeruli using immunolabeling, tissue clearing, and confocal microscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Podocyte depletion, low nephron number, aging, and hypertension are associated with glomerulosclerosis and CKD. However, the relationship between podometrics and nephron number has not previously been examined.
Methods: To investigate podometrics and nephron number in healthy Japanese individuals, a population characterized by a relatively low nephron number, we immunostained single paraffin sections from 30 Japanese living-kidney donors (median age, 57 years) with podocyte-specific markers and analyzed images obtained with confocal microscopy.
Total nephron counts vary widely between individuals and may affect susceptibility to certain diseases, including hypertension and chronic kidney disease. Detailed analyses of whole kidneys collected from autopsy patients remain the only method for accurately counting nephrons in humans, with no equivalent option in living subjects. Current technological advances have enabled estimations of nephron numbers in vivo, particularly the use of total nephron number and whole-kidney glomerular filtration rate to estimate the mean single-nephron glomerular filtration rate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRationale & Objective: The response to corticosteroid therapy may differ among patients with minimal change disease (MCD). Previous studies have suggested that glomerular hypertrophy or low areal glomerular density in biopsy specimens, which may be related to fewer nephrons, is associated with such a difference. We examined the associations between nephron number and the therapeutic response to corticosteroids in patients with MCD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh protein intake can increase glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in response to excretory overload, which may exacerbate the progression of kidney disease. However, the direct association between glomerular hemodynamic response at the single-nephron level and dietary protein intake has not been fully elucidated in humans. In the present study, we evaluated nutritional indices associated with single-nephron GFR (SNGFR) calculated based on corrected creatinine clearance (SNGFR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG) is a slowly progressive kidney disease occurring in association with obesity. It is characterized histopathologically by glomerulomegaly, likely caused by single-nephron hyperfiltration that has not been demonstrated in humans because of technical difficulty in measuring single-nephron glomerular filtration rate (SNGFR) in the clinical setting.
Methods: Total glomerular number per kidney, with or without global glomerulosclerosis, was estimated by the combination of cortical volume assessment via unenhanced computed tomography and biopsy-based stereology.
Methods for estimating nephron number in a clinical setting may be useful for predicting renal outcomes. This study aimed to establish such a method using unenhanced computed tomography (CT) and biopsy-based stereology. Patients or living kidney donors simultaneously subjected to enhanced and unenhanced CT examinations were randomly assigned to development and validation groups.
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