The cellular signature of urinary immune cells in Lupus nephritis: new insights into potential biomarkers

Urinary T cells represent a reliable noninvasive biomarker for proliferative Lupus nephritis (LN). Little is known about the presence of T cell subsets, B cells and macrophages in the urine although they may further improve the validity of urinary cellular biomarkers for LN. We analyzed contemporaneous blood and urine samples of patients with active LN (n = 19), other Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients (n = 79) and urine samples of patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN; n = 14) and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmatic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV; n = 11) by flow cytometry. Nu... Mehr ...