Local and systemic cellular immunity in early renal artery atherosclerosis

KOTLIAR C; JUNCOS L; INSERRA F; CAVANAGH EMV DE; CHULUYAN E; AQUINO JB; HITA A; NAVARI C; FORCADA P; SÁNCHEZ R

CLINICAL JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY

AMER SOC NEPHROLOGY

Año: 2012 vol. 7 p. 224 - 230

1555-9041

Background and objectives Modern imaging techniques have increased the incidental detection of renal atherosclerotic disease (RAD). Because immune activation may hasten RAD progression, identifying cellular immune markersmight provide clues to clinical activity. In this study, cellular immunemarkers were assessed in early RAD. Design, setting, participants, & measurements. Immune cell markers in peripheral blood of two groups of hypertensive patientswith normal carotid and coronary arterieswere evaluated: 28 patients had incidental RAD and 22 patients had normal renal arteries; 21 renal arteries obtained at necropsy fromindividuals with history of hypertension and tissue evidence of RAD were examined and matched with 21 individuals with normal renal arteries. Cell subpopulations were measured by flow cytometry in peripheral blood and direct cell count, respectively, using T and dendritic cells monoclonal antibodies. Results Peripheral blood of RAD patients showed increased numbers of cells expressing CD3, CD4, CD83, and CD86. CD4 to CD8 ratio was 8.36 1.4 (RAD) to 3.4 6 0.9 (normal; P,0.001). No differences were found in CD25, CD8, andS100 among groups. Postmortem samples from RAD showed increased CD3+,CD4+,CD86+, and S100+ cells, whereas CD25+ and CD8+ were unmodified between groups. CD4+ to CD8+ ratio was higher in the RADPM group. Conclusions These results are consistent with an increased expression of immune cell markers in early RAD. Additional studies will explore if they may potentially turn into treatment targets to prevent disease progression.