The clinical Utility of Urinary Nephrin as a Marker of Glomerular Diseases in Children Thesis

Abstract

GD are one of the leading causes of chronic kidney disease among children and the increased morbidity and mortality of GD patients’ is due to being asymptomatic in it’ s early stages in addition to the lack of sensitive and specific methods for it’ s early detection. Despite using proteinuria as a current non-invasive measure for assessment of GD, it remains a non-specific marker for glomerular injury. It is well known that the common feature between the different types of GD is podocytes damage which play an important role in the development and progression of GD. Early podocyte structural change is characterized by detachment of podocytes and it’ s associated proteins from the glomerular basement membrane. Nephrin is one of the associated proteins expressed in glomerular podocytes that forms together with the endothelial cells and the basement membrane the glomerular filteration barrier. Being an integral part of podocytes, urinary nephrin is being evaluated as a non-invasive marker in pediatric patients with GD, to diagnose the type and to assess the severity of the kidney disease in such patients.