Relationship between renal tertiary lymphoid structure and clinical pathology and prognosis in idiopathic membranous nephropathy patients
10.3760/cma.j.cn441217-20240311-00309
- VernacularTitle:肾脏病理三级淋巴结构与特发性膜性肾病临床病理及预后的关系
- Author:
Feng WANG
1
;
Jiayi XU
;
Bowen WANG
;
Xiaomei LIU
;
Fumei WANG
;
Beiru ZHANG
;
Hua ZHOU
;
Yanqiu WANG
Author Information
1. 中国医科大学附属盛京医院肾脏内科，沈阳 110004
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Glomerulonephritis, membranous;
Tertiary lymphoid structures;
Prognosis
- From:
Chinese Journal of Nephrology
2025;41(6):417-426
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To evaluate the expression of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) in renal tissues, and the relationship between TLS and clinicopathological changes and prognosis in idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) patients.Methods:It was a single center retrospective study. The patients with IMN diagnosed by renal biopsy at Shengjing Hospital Affiliated to China Medical University from January 2018 to December 2020 were enrolled, and their clinicopathological data were collected. Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate the expression of TLS in renal tissues. According to whether TLS expression in renal tissues was positive or not, the patients were divided into TLS-positive group and TLS-negative group, and the baseline differences in clinicopathological data between the two groups were compared. The clinical remission included complete remission and partial remission. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the correlation between serum phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) antibody titer and positive TLS expression in renal tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival curve and log-rank test were performed to analyze the differences of proteinuria remission rates between TLS-positive and TLS-negative groups. Cox regression analysis was employed to identify the related factors of proteinuria remission. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the value of TLS in predicting proteinuria remission.Results:A total of 120 IMN patients were included in this study, with age of 50.00 (40.00, 57.75) years and 78 (65.00%) males. The 24-hour urinary protein was (7.54±4.14) g, 89 (74.17%) patients were positive for serum PLA2R antibody, and the serum PLA2R antibody titer was 90.49 (48.88, 155.33) RU/ml. Immunohistochemical results showed that TLS was mainly distributed in the renal cortex glomeruli or around renal blood vessels in renal tissues. There were 43 patients in the TLS-positive group and 77 patients in the TLS-negative group. The positive rate of serum PLA2R antibody in the TLS-positive group was 83.72% (36/43). Compared with the TLS-negative group, the TLS-positive group had lower serum albumin ( t=-3.474, P<0.001) and estimated glomerular filtration rate ( Z=-2.076, P=0.045), while serum creatinine ( t=2.006, P=0.028), 24-hour urinary protein ( t=4.140, P<0.001), serum PLA2R antibody titer ( Z=4.628, P=0.001), glomerulosclerosis degree ( Z=2.403, P=0.019), and proportions of hypertension ( χ2=6.511, P=0.011), renal interstitial fibrosis ( χ2=4.088, P=0.043), renal interstitial inflammatory cell infiltration ( χ2=9.261, P=0.002), tubular atrophy ( χ2=4.936, P=0.026) and extremely high-risk of kidney disease progression ( χ2=9.352, P=0.002) were higher. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that serum PLA2R antibody titer was an independent factor correlated with positive TLS expression in renal tissues ( OR=1.014, 95% CI 1.007-1.021). The median follow-up time was 18.00 (95% CI 16.07-19.93) months. Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that the proteinuria remission rate in the TLS-positive group was lower than that in the TLS-negative group (Log-rank χ2=9.339, P=0.002). Cox regression analysis showed that positive TLS expression was an independent factor correlated with proteinuria remission ( HR=0.228, 95% CI 0.177-0.297). ROC curve showed that TLS had a certain clinical predictive value for proteinuria remission ( AUC=0.703, 95% CI 0.608-0.798). Conclusions:IMN patients with positive TLS expression in renal tissues have a lower proteinuria remission rate, more severe pathological damage, and a higher risk of disease progression. TLS is expected to become a pathological marker for predicting the severity and prognosis of IMN.
