Correlation of decoy receptor 2 with clinical and pathological characteristics of acute kidney injury

Abstract

Objective To investigate the correlation between decoy receptor 2 (DcR2) and clinical indicators and pathological damage in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Methods A total of 51 AKI patients diagnosed with renal biopsy and 20 healthy controls admitted to our department between January 2018 and November 2021 were recruited in this study. ELISA was used to measure their urinary DcR2/Cr levels. Correlations of urinary DcR2/Cr levels with renal tubular DcR2 expression and renal function indicators were analyzed. Immunohistochemical assay was employed for DcR2 expression and location, and immunofluorescence co-staining was performed to analyze the colocalization of DcR2 and fibrotic markers (α-SMA and FSP1). Results Urinary DcR2/Cr was significantly higher in the AKI group than the control group (P<0.05), and DcR2 was specifically highly expressed in the tubular cells, and the positive rate of DcR2 expression was higher in AKI patients than the control group (P<0.01). Urinary DcR2/Cr levels were positively correlated with urea nitrogen and creatinine (r=0.426, P<0.05;r=0.462, P<0.05), and negatively correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (r=0.536, P<0.01). Renal DcR2 expression level was positively correlated with urinary DcR2/Cr levels, tubular atrophy and severity of interstitial fibrosis in AKI patients (r=0.808, r=0.457, P<0.01). Moreover, fibrotic markers α-SMA and FSP-1 were highly expressed around the DcR2-positive renal tubular cells. Conclusion The changes in urinary DcR2/Cr levels and renal DcR2 expression level are closely associated with renal function indicators and chronic renal injury in AKI patients, suggesting that DcR2 could be possibly used as a potential biomarker to assess kidney injury and prognosis.

Keywords

• decoy receptor 2
• acute kidney injury
• biomarker
• correlation analysis