ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Urinary angiotensinogen (AGT) has been reported as an important marker reflecting the activity of intrarenal renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in chronic glomerulonephritis patients. We investigated urinary AGT excretion and intrarenal AGT expression in patients with minimal change disease (MCD). METHODS: In 20 patients with biopsy-proven MCD, urinary and plasma AGT was measured using a sandwich ELISA and intrarenal AGT expression was measured with immunohistochemistry. Urine samples from normal healthy volunteers and patients with biopsy-proven thin basement membrane disease (TBM) were used as control groups. RESULTS: MCD patients showed a wide range of natural logarithm of the urinary AGT/creatinine [ln (urinary AGT/Cr)] and the ln (urinary AGT/Cr) was higher in MCD patients compared with normal controls and TBM controls (normal control vs. TBM vs. MCD, 1.2+/-0.25 vs. 0.9+/-0.34 vs. 3.2+/-0.40). Intrarenal AGT expression was diverse in MCD patients (intrarenal AGT, arbitrary unit, 27.39-78.52 in TBM, 0.00-145.80 in MCD). Ln (urinary AGT/Cr) did not show a direct correlation with intrarenal AGT expression, plasma AGT, or urinary protein/creatinine ratio. CONCLUSION: Urinary AGT excretion and intrarenal AGT expression are enhanced in some MCD patients, suggesting that intrarenal RAS is activated in these patients.