Kidney expression of toll like receptors in lupus nephritis: quantification and clinicopathological correlations

Objective. The study aimed at locating and quantifying Toll Like Receptor (TLR) 3, 7, 8, and 9 expression in kidney of patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and correlating them with clinicopathological features. Methods. Kidney sections from 26 LN patients and 4 controls were analyzed by immunohistochemistry using anti-human TLR3, TLR7, TLR8, and TLR9 polyclonal antibodies; the number of TLR-positive nuclei/mm2 was evaluated on digitalized images. Results. Compared to controls, LN showed a significantly higher amount of glomerular and tubulointerstitial TLR9 ( = 0.003 and = 0.007), whole and tubulointerstitial TLR3 ( = 0.026 and = 0.031), and a higher tubulointerstitial TLR7 ( = 0.022). TLR9 positively correlated with activity index ( = 0.0063) and tubular TLR7 with chronicity index ( = 0.026). TLR9 positively correlated with Renal-SLEDAI ( = 0.01). Conclusions. This is the first study quantifying kidney expressions of TLRs in LN patients; the results show an overexpression of TLR3, TLR7, and TLR9 and demonstrate a correlation with clinicopathological indices supporting a role of these mediators in the pathogenesis of LN.