Correlation Analysis Between Urinary T Lymphocyte Subsets And Lupus Nephritis Disease Activity

Objective: In clinic, it's significantly important to monitor lupus nephritis (LN) disease activity for the long-term prognosis of patients. To explore the role of urinary T lymphocyte true count in the evaluation of LN disease activity, we enrolled 35 patients and 21 healthy controls. Methods: Fresh morning-midstream urine of all subjects was collected for preparing cell suspension by precipitation, filtration, centrifugation. Lymphocyte subsets were determined by flow cytometry using CD3-FITC, CD8-PE, CD4-APC, CD45-PerCP. The concentration of urinary MCP-1 and TWEAK were measured by ELISA. Contrastive analysis was made combining with the clinical data collected from patients. Rests: The urinary CD3(+), CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells counts of LN patients are all significantly higher than that of the healthy controls, and positively correlated with the SLEDAI and rSLEDAI scores. Compared with other T cell subsets, experimental and clinical indicators, the counts of urinary CD4(+) T cells showed the most significant difference among different disease activity groups. Conclusions: Counts of the main urinary T lymphocyte subsets correlate with LN disease activity scores. And among them, CD4(+) T cells can be used to distinguish patients in different disease activity groups, revealing a new biomarker for LN disease activity evaluation.