Yonsei Med J.  1999 Oct;40(5):425-429. 10.3349/ymj.1999.40.5.425.

Assessment of urinary endothelin-1 and nitric oxide levels and their relationship with clinical and pathologic types in primary glomerulonephritis

• Duan SB
• Liu FY
• Luo JA
• Peng YM

• KMID: 711673
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.1999.40.5.425

Abstract

To determine the relationship between the urinary endothelin (ET-1), nitric oxide (NO) levels and the clinical, pathologic types of primary glomerulonephritis (GN) patients, urinary levels of ET-1 and NO were detected in 27 patients with biopsy-proven primary GN and 12 normal controls by radioimmunoassay and by copper-plated and cadmium column reduction assay, respectively. The results showed that urinary ET-1 levels in the patients with primary GN were significantly higher than in normal controls (p < 0.01), while the urinary ET-1 levels in patients with moderate mesangial proliferation GN were significantly higher than those in patients with mild mesangial proliferation GN (p < 0.05). Urinary ET-1 levels in patients whose clinical feature was nephrotic syndrome were found to be higher than in patients whose clinical feature was nephritic syndrome. However, urinary NO levels were to the contrary (p < 0.05). The ratio of ET-1/NO in primary GN patients was significantly higher than that in normal controls, and it positively correlated with the 24-hour urinary excretion of protein. These results suggest that urinary ET-1 levels are related to the proliferation of mesangial cells. The imbalance between ET-1 and NO may be related to the pathogenesis of primary GN and the occurrence of proteinuria.

Keyword

Endothelin; nitric oxide; primary glomerulonephritis; urinary markers

MeSH Terms

Adolescence
Adult
Endothelin-1/urine*
Endothelin-1/physiology
Female
Glomerulonephritis/urine*
Glomerulonephritis/etiology
Human
Male
Middle Age
Nitric Oxide/urine*
Nitric Oxide/physiology
Nitric-Oxide Synthase/metabolism