The association between IL-15 expression and immunopathological damage in patients with lupus nephritis

ZHAO Shaojing; ZENG Yan; LI Zhengdong

doi:10.13431/j.cnki.immunol.j.20190067

Abstract：To investigate the expression of IL-15 in patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and its relationship with immunopathological damage, total of 62 LN patients (LN group) and 60 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients (SLE group) were recruited from our hospital during February 2016 to June 2017, and evaluated with retrospective analysis. The immunopathological features of the two groups were recorded; the hematological indexes such as IL-15 were detected, the prognosis were followed up, and correlation analysis was carried out. Data showed that the incidence of tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis in the LN group were significantly higher than that in the SLE group (P<0.05), while there were no significant difference in the incidence of glomerular sclerosis and fibrotic crescent between the two groups (P>0.05). Furthermore, the levels of CysC, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 in the LN group were significantly higher than those in the SLE group (P<0.05). The IL-15 level of the LN group was (16.30±11.49) ng/L, which was significantly higher than that of the SLE group of (8.20±2.94) ng/L (t=8.588, P=0.003). LN group demonstrated a higher incidence rate (24.2％) of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, including malignant arrhythmia, stroke, cardiac death, recurrent heart failure, recurrent coronary events), as compared with SLE group (5.0％) (P<0.05). Spearman's test showed that IL-15 level was positively correlated with renal tubularatrophy, interstitial fibrosis, CysC, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and MACE (P<0.05) in the LN group. Taken together, IL-15 is highly expressed in LN patients, accompaning with severe immunopathological damage, which are significantly correlated with each other, and may affect the patient's condition and prognosis.