gms | German Medical Science

28. Wissenschaftlicher Kongress der Deutschen Hochdruckliga

24. bis 27.11.2004, Hannover

Bone Morphogenetic Proteins in Nephrosclerosis

Morphogenetische Knochen Protein bei Nephrosklerose

Meeting Abstract (Hypertonie 2004)

  • C.P. Bramlage - Universitätsklinikum Göttingen (Göttingen, D)
  • I. Matouk - Universitätsklinikum Göttingen (Göttingen, D)
  • M. Koziolek - Universitätsklinikum Göttingen (Göttingen, D)
  • G.A. Müller - Universitätsklinikum Göttingen (Göttingen, D)
  • F. Strutz - Universitätsklinikum Göttingen (Göttingen, D)

Hypertonie 2004. 28. Wissenschaftlicher Kongress der Deutschen Hochdruckliga. Hannover, 24.-27.11.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2005. Doc04hochP40

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hoch2004/04hoch040.shtml

Published: August 10, 2005

© 2005 Bramlage et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Nephrosclerosis is responsible for the development of end-stage renal failure in about 20 per cent of cases. Whereas nephrosclerosis is induced by hypertension itself, progression is influenced by infiltrating inflammatory cells and cytokines. Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMP) are essential for the organogenesis of the kidney and they seem to influence different acute and chronic renal diseases as well as the pathogenesis of artherosclerosis by their involvement in proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation and chemotaxis of various cell types.

The aims of our study were to analyze the expression of BMP-4, -5 and -7 by immunohistochemistry in patients with nephrosclerosis in comparison with normal kidney tissue obtained from nephrectomies. In addition, extracellular matrix formation was quantified by Masson's trichrome staining.The results of our study demonstrate that all three BMPs are expressed in normal kidney sections. Expression of BMP-4 and -7 is located endoluminally in the tubuli - predominantly in the distal tubuli with higher expression of BMP-7 compared to BMP-4. BMP-5 however showed high expression in basal membranes of tubuli and glomeruli in both groups. A similar expression pattern was found in sections from patients with nephrosclerosis. However, changes in expression were restricted to BMP-7. Whereas the expression of BMP-7 in the control group was predominantly endoluminal, expression in the nephrosclerosis was located in endoluminal tubuli as well as in the tubulointerstitium correlating with the increased fibrosis in nephrosclerosis. As expected, extracellular matrix score was higher in nephrosclerosis specimens.

These findings, especially the changed expression of BMP-7 may demonstrate an involvement in the pathogenesis of nephrosclerosis. However further studies are necessary to evaluate the exact function and its potential as a therapeutic option as demonstrated already for other acute and chronic kidney diseases.