Division of Nephrology and Hemodialysis, Kitano Hospital, The Tazuke Kofukai Medical Research Institute , Osaka 538-8480 , Japan .
Autoimmunity. 2013 Dec;46(8):513-24. doi: 10.3109/08916934.2013.822073. Epub 2013 Aug 15.
Microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) is a systemic autoimmune disease that often has a fatal outcome. Although delineating the molecular pathogenesis is essential for its remedy, an understanding of its molecular mechanism has remained elusive. To search for new markers of active lesions that might help better understand the molecular basis of MPA and aid in its diagnosis, we here performed DNA microarray analysis with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Compared to normal control, several genes were up- or down-regulated in MPA patients, including up-regulation of the mRNA level of ficolin-1 (FCN1 or M-ficolin), an innate pattern recognition complement molecule. The amount of ficolin-1, as detected by immunohistochemistry, was higher in the glomeruli of another group of MPA patients than in the glomeruli of control patients who harbored almost normal glomeruli. Many of the ficolin-1 dots were also positive for CD68, suggesting that the ficolin-1-positive cells were monocytes, such as macrophages or dendritic cells. This is not due to the difference in the number of neutrophil or monocytes in the blood samples of MPA and control patients. Taken together, we conclude that increased ficolin-1 expression could serve as a new marker for the characterization of MPA, especially when it is associated with local active lesions.
显微镜下多血管炎 (MPA) 是一种系统性自身免疫性疾病，常导致致命后果。虽然阐明其分子发病机制对于治疗至关重要，但对其分子机制的理解仍然难以捉摸。为了寻找新的活性病变标志物，以帮助更好地了解 MPA 的分子基础并辅助其诊断，我们使用外周血单核细胞 (PBMC) 进行了 DNA 微阵列分析。与正常对照组相比，MPA 患者的几个基因上调或下调，包括先天模式识别补体分子 ficolin-1 (FCN1 或 M-ficolin) 的 mRNA 水平上调。在另一组 MPA 患者的肾小球中，ficolin-1 的量通过免疫组织化学检测比肾小球中携带几乎正常肾小球的对照组患者的肾小球更高。许多 ficolin-1 点也对 CD68 呈阳性，表明 ficolin-1 阳性细胞是单核细胞，如巨噬细胞或树突状细胞。这不是由于 MPA 和对照组患者血液样本中中性粒细胞或单核细胞数量的差异。综上所述，我们得出结论，ficolin-1 表达增加可作为 MPA 特征的新标志物，尤其是当它与局部活性病变相关时。
