EVALUATION OF THE INTERRELATIONS OF BLOOD VCAM-1 LEVEL AND CLINICO-MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRONIC GLOMERULONEFRITIS

Chronic glomerulonephritis is characterized by irreversible progression of the pathological process, which leads to the formation of terminal renal failure significantly impairing the  patient's quality of life, leading to internal dysfunction and increasing the risk of premature overall and cardiovascular mortality.  Consequently, the search for non-invasive methods for assessing the state of renal tissue, including the detection of proteins involved  in renal inflammation, fibrosis, intercellular interaction is currently important. THE AIM : To determine the serum levels of the vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in patients with various forms of  chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN) and to clarify its relationship to the  development of morphological changes in the renal tissue. PATIENTS AND METHODS : In 80 patients (men and women), with CGN in the acute stage was carried out a detailed clinical and  laboratory examination, including determination of serum VCAM-1 by ELISA and performing puncture renal biopsy with the assessment of  morphological changes. Statistical analysis of the results was carried  out using «Microsoft Office Excel 2010» («Microsoft Corp.», USA)  and "STATISTICA 10.0" («StatSoft Inc.», USA). RESULTS . The serum level concentration of VCAM-1 was 719  [643;771] ng/ml. Obtained statistically significant interrelations with  enlargement of mesangial space, endothelial growth, capillary walls  thickening, mesangial hypercellularity, endothelial hypercellularity,  protein casts in tubules, anses capillaries union, fibrose demilunes,  podocyte necrosis, hypertrophic remodeling type of resistive type  vessels, Ig deposites, IgA deposites, IgG seposites, C3 complement  fluorescence, fibrinogen deposites.  CONCLUSION : The results of the study demonstrate the important  role of VCAM-1 in the development of immunocomplex inflammation in glomerulonephritis. VCAM-1 is a marker of different morphological changes in CGN, and determining the level of VCAM-1 in serum is  informative, simple and noninvasive method which provides  evaluation of inflammatory process activity, prediction of the risk of morphological changes in the renal tissue structure in patients  with CGN.