Pathophysiological analysis of pediatric kidney diseases focusing on physical characteristics of urinary extracellular vesicles

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K20847
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0902:General internal medicine and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Takizawa Keiichi 東京大学, 医学部附属病院, 助教 (10791957)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 尿中細胞外小胞 / 小児慢性腎臓病

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To characterize the physics of urinary extracellular vesicles (urinary EVs) in pediatric chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, nanoparticle tracking analysis and proteome analysis were performed in healthy children and pediatric CKD patients. The density of peak size was found to be significantly lower in pediatric CKD patients, and urinary concentration was also found to affect the number and size of particles. Also, we observed changes in the expression levels of a specific molecules in urinary EVs in pediatric CKD patients regardless of physical parameters, and an ELISA protocol was established to measure the expression of these molecules in a simple manner (Takizawa K et al STAR Protoc. 2023).

Free Research Field

小児腎臓病学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

小児CKDの多くは、希釈尿で、かつ顕著な蛋白尿や血尿を認めないため、現状の学校検尿システムでは見逃されることが多い。また、血清クレアチニンによる糸球体濾過量の測定は侵襲的であるだけでなく、残存ネフロンによる代償により病態の早期検出が困難であるという問題を抱えている。本研究成果で得られた小児CKDに特徴的な尿中EVの物理特性や分子発現量の変化を高精度に測定できる検査系を確立することができれば、上記の問題を解決し、これまで見逃されていた小児CKDの早期発見につながることが期待できる。