Association between nephrinuria, podocyturia, and proteinuria in women with pre-eclampsia

Aim Podocyte depletion in the kidney is associated with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Pre-eclampsia (PE) increases the risk of ESKD in later life. This study was performed to determine whether nephrinuria (soluble nephrin in the urine) is correlated with proteinuria and/or podocyturia (podocytes in the urine) in PE women. Methods Eighty-three urine samples, consisting of 45 and 38 samples from 27 normotensive and nine PE women, respectively, underwent simultaneous determination of nephrin, protein, and creatinine concentrations in the urine supernatant and quantitative analysis of podocyte-specific protein mRNA expression. This included podocin (Pod-mRNA) and nephrin (Nep-mRNA), using real-time polymerase chain reaction in the pelleted urine. Nephrinuria and proteinuria were corrected by creatinine concentration. Pod- and Nep-mRNA expression levels were corrected by GAPDH. Results Nephrinuria, proteinuria, Pod-mRNA expression, and Nep-mRNA expression all increased with advancing gestation in PE women, while not in normotensive women. The nephrinuria was strongly correlated with proteinuria (R = 0.901, P < 0.001), Pod-mRNA expression level (R = 0.824, P