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Andrés Pirela 1 Article
Post-mortem assessment of vimentin expression as a biomarker for renal tubular regeneration following acute kidney injury
Juan Carlos Alvarez Moreno, Hisham F. Bahmad, Christopher A. Febres-Aldana, Andrés Pirela, Andres Azuero, Ali Salami, Robert Poppiti
J Pathol Transl Med. 2021;55(6):369-379.   Published online October 14, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4132/jptm.2021.08.03
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AbstractAbstract PDF
Background
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality. It mainly targets the renal tubular epithelium with pathological changes, referred to as acute tubular injury. The latter is followed by a regenerative response that is difficult to visualize on routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stains. In this study, we examined the regenerative capacity of renal tubules by correlating vimentin (VIM) immunohistochemical (IHC) expression and pathological findings of AKI and renal tubular regeneration (RTR) on H&E.
Methods
We reviewed 23 autopsies performed in the clinical setting of AKI and RTR. VIM expression was scored in the renal cortical tubular epithelium using a statistical cutoff ≥ 3% for high expression and < 3% for low expression.
Results
Of the 23 kidney tissues examined, seven (30.4%) had low VIM expression, and 16 (69.6%) had high VIM expression. Kidney tissues with evidence of AKI and RTR had significantly higher VIM expression. Renal peritubular microenvironment features showing regenerative changes on H&E were associated with high VIM expression. In the univariate model, kidney tissues with RTR were 18-fold more likely to have high VIM expression.
Conclusions
In conclusion, our findings suggest that VIM could serve as an IHC marker for RTR following AKI. However, correlation with H&E findings remains critical to excluding chronic tubular damage. Collectively, our preliminary results pave the way for future studies including a larger sample size to validate the use of VIM as a reliable biomarker for RTR.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by  
  • Characterization of macrophages in ischemia–reperfusion injury-induced acute kidney injury based on single-cell RNA-Seq and bulk RNA-Seq analysis
    Qin Wang, Yuxing Liu, Yan Zhang, Siyuan Zhang, Meifang Zhao, Zhangzhe Peng, Hui Xu, Hao Huang
    International Immunopharmacology.2024; 130: 111754.     CrossRef

J Pathol Transl Med : Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine