Department of Clinical Immunology and Immunotherapy, Medical University of Lublin, 20-093 Lublin, Poland.
Department of Nephrology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski Provincial Hospital in Lublin, 20-718 Lublin, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Oct 27;21(21):8001. doi: 10.3390/ijms21218001.
Alterations to the programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) pathway were previously shown to be involved in a poorer prognosis for patients with proliferative glomerulonephritis (PGN). Here, we investigated the association between several infectious agents and the expression of PD-1 and its ligand (PD-L1) on T and B lymphocytes in patients with PGN and nonproliferative glomerulonephritis (NPGN). A cohort of 45 newly-diagnosed patients (23 with PGN and 22 with NPGN) and 20 healthy volunteers was enrolled. The percentage of peripheral blood mononuclear cells expressing PD-1 and PD-L1 antigens was determined by flow cytometry. We found PD-1 and PD-L1 expression on T and B lymphocytes was higher in PGN patients than in NPGN patients and controls. We also found that reactivation of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) correlated with the expression of PD-1/PD-L1 antigens in patients with PGN. Further receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated that PD-1 expression could distinguish EBV-positive PGN patients from those with NPGN or healthy controls. The use of PD-1 expression as a non-invasive marker of PGN should be further investigated.
程序性细胞死亡蛋白-1（PD-1）途径的改变先前被证明与增殖性肾小球肾炎（PGN）患者的预后较差有关。在这里，我们研究了几种感染因子与 PGN 和非增殖性肾小球肾炎（NPGN）患者 T 和 B 淋巴细胞上 PD-1 及其配体（PD-L1）表达之间的关联。一组 45 名新诊断的患者（23 名 PGN 和 22 名 NPGN）和 20 名健康志愿者被纳入研究。通过流式细胞术确定外周血单个核细胞表达 PD-1 和 PD-L1 抗原的百分比。我们发现 PGN 患者的 T 和 B 淋巴细胞上 PD-1 和 PD-L1 抗原的表达高于 NPGN 患者和对照组。我们还发现，EB 病毒（EBV）的再激活与 PGN 患者 PD-1/PD-L1 抗原的表达相关。进一步的受试者工作特征分析表明，PD-1 表达可区分 EBV 阳性的 PGN 患者与 NPGN 患者或健康对照者。应进一步研究 PD-1 表达作为 PGN 的非侵入性标志物的用途。
