Assessment of detached podocytes in the Bowman's space as a marker of disease activity in lupus nephritis.

Podocyte damage is an important pathogenic component of glomerular disease progression. This study is a trial to clarify the value of counting and scoring the number of shed Bowman's space podocytes as an activity parameter of lupus nephritis, a trial that has not been conducted before. This study was performed on 42 female patients with the clinical diagnosis of lupus nephritis. Beside the routine stains tissue sections were stained by colloidal iron and anti podocalyxin for sialomucin. Podocytes in the Bowman's space were counted and scored. Thorough statistical work was carried out to correlate the podocyte scores with the morphological lesions of lupus nephritis. This study revealed significant association and correlation of shed Bowman's space podocytes with histopathological parameters of activity in different classes of lupus nephritis. We concluded that counting and scoring shed Bowman's space podocytes is statistically significant as a marker of disease activity in lupus nephritis. It can be one of the parameters of activity index but not of chronicity index.