Korean J Nephrol.  2011 Nov;30(6):593-600.

Urinary Angiotensinogen Excretion and Intrarenal Angiotensinogen Expression in Minimal Change Disease Patients

• Jang HR
• Jo A
• Park JH
• Lee JE
• Huh W
• Kim DJ
• Oh HY
• Kim YG

Abstract

PURPOSE
Urinary angiotensinogen (AGT) has been reported as an important marker reflecting the activity of intrarenal renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in chronic glomerulonephritis patients. We investigated urinary AGT excretion and intrarenal AGT expression in patients with minimal change disease (MCD).
METHODS
In 20 patients with biopsy-proven MCD, urinary and plasma AGT was measured using a sandwich ELISA and intrarenal AGT expression was measured with immunohistochemistry. Urine samples from normal healthy volunteers and patients with biopsy-proven thin basement membrane disease (TBM) were used as control groups.
RESULTS
MCD patients showed a wide range of natural logarithm of the urinary AGT/creatinine [ln (urinary AGT/Cr)] and the ln (urinary AGT/Cr) was higher in MCD patients compared with normal controls and TBM controls (normal control vs. TBM vs. MCD, 1.2+/-0.25 vs. 0.9+/-0.34 vs. 3.2+/-0.40). Intrarenal AGT expression was diverse in MCD patients (intrarenal AGT, arbitrary unit, 27.39-78.52 in TBM, 0.00-145.80 in MCD). Ln (urinary AGT/Cr) did not show a direct correlation with intrarenal AGT expression, plasma AGT, or urinary protein/creatinine ratio.
CONCLUSION
Urinary AGT excretion and intrarenal AGT expression are enhanced in some MCD patients, suggesting that intrarenal RAS is activated in these patients.

Keyword

Angiotensinogen; Intra-renal RAS; Minimal change disease; Proteinuria

MeSH Terms

Angiotensinogen
Basement Membrane
Corneal Dystrophies, Hereditary
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Glomerulonephritis
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Nephrosis, Lipoid
Plasma
Proteinuria
Renin-Angiotensin System
Angiotensinogen
Corneal Dystrophies, Hereditary