Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun 23;18(6):e0278441.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278441. eCollection 2023.

Evaluation of renal markers in systemic autoimmune diseases

Hari Krishnamurthy  1 , Yuanyuan Yang  1 , Qi Song  1 , Karthik Krishna  1 , Vasanth Jayaraman  1 , Tianhao Wang  1 , Kang Bei  1 , John J Rajasekaran  1
Affiliations

Evaluation of renal markers in systemic autoimmune diseases

Hari Krishnamurthy et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Renal involvement is a common occurrence in subjects with systemic autoimmune diseases. The renal manifestation and its severity depend on the underlying condition and may reversely complicate the clinical course of autoimmune diseases. Renal function markers have been widely used in the assessment of normal functioning of kidneys including glomerular filtration rate and concentrating and diluting capacity of the kidney. An increase or decrease in the values of these markers may indicate kidney dysfunction. In this study, a number of critical renal markers were examined in seropositive autoimmune diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), connective tissue disorder (CTD), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The data from three cohorts of subjects enrolled in renal markers and autoimmune antibody testing between January 2015 to August 2019 were retrospectively studied. The prevalence of renal markers that were out of the reference range and their average levels in female and male subgroups across SLE, CTD, and RA cohorts were compared and analyzed. The levels of renal markers are significantly affected by the presence of autoantibodies, in particular eGFR, cystatin C, and albumin. Autoantibodies were also more frequent in subjects with severe renal function damage. Close follow-up of both renal markers and autoantibodies may potentially assist in the early diagnosis of kidney diseases and improve the survival and life expectancy of autoimmune patients.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: YY and QS are paid employees of Vibrant America LLC. KK, VJ, TW, KB, HK, JJR, are paid employees of Vibrant Sciences LLC. Vibrant Sciences or Vibrant America could benefit from increased testing based on the results. There are no patents, products in development, or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Prevalence of out-of-range renal markers in seropositive SLE subjects and seronegative controls.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Prevalence of out-of-range renal markers in seropositive CTD subjects and seronegative controls.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Prevalence of out-of-range renal markers in seropositive RA subjects and seronegative controls.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Frequencies of individual autoantibodies in three stages of kidney diseases.
Autoantibodies increase with a decrease in eGFR.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Wang L, Wang F‐ S, Gershwin ME. Human autoimmune diseases: a comprehensive update. J Intern Med. 2015;278:369–395. doi: 10.1111/joim.12395 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Suurmond J, Diamond B. Autoantibodies in systemic autoimmune diseases: specificity and pathogenicity. J Clin Invest. 2015;125(6):2194–2202. doi: 10.1172/JCI78084 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mittal T, Rathi M. Rheumatological diseases and kidneys: a nephrologist’s perspective. Int J Rheum Dis. 2014;17:834–844. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.12424 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kronbichler A, Mayer G. Renal involvement in autoimmune connective tissue diseases. BMC Medicine. 2013;11:95 doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-11-95 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Seshan SV, Jennette JC. Renal disease in systemic lupus erythematosus with emphasis on classification of lupus glomerulonephritis: advances and implications. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2009;133:233–248. doi: 10.5858/133.2.233 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types