By animal experiment in rat, it has been known that interleukin-6 (IL-6) is secreted from renal mesangial cells and is an autocrine growth factor for the proliferation of mesangial cells. According to these facts, several studies have been tried
for
clinical use by measuring their serum or urinary IL-6 in glomerulonephritis patient with meangial proliferation. The author measured serum and urinary IL-6 by Interleukin-6 [125I] RIA kit (Amersham Co) in 16 patients with Henoch-Sch?lein purpura
nephritis (HSPN), and in 12 normal bealthy children as a control group. The results were as follows:
1) The serum level of IL-6 were increased significantly in the HSP patient group compared to in both HSPN and normal control groups, statistically (p=0.005 p==.006).
2) The level of urinary IL-6 was increased to in both HSP and normal control groups, statistically (p=0.023, p=0.045).
3) Of the 9 patients with HSPN confirmed by renal biopsy, there were 4 patients whose urinary IL-6 levels were higher than the upper level of that in normal control group (mean+2 S.D.). And according to the pathologic findings, they were
classified as
one case each of grade II and grade IV, and two cases of grade III. Also there was a positive correlation between the degree of mesangial proliferation and the urinary IL-6 level.
4) The urinary IL-6 level in the HSPN group had no relation with the level of urinary TNF-α, serum level of IL-6 or the amount of 24-hour urine protein.
With these results, the author concluded that the level of urinary IL-6 in the patient with HSPN could be useful as an indirect indicator of the degree of mesan gial proliferation and for the prediction of histological or clinical status in the
follow-up studies.
|