Decreased TIM-3 mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from nephropathy patients

Increasing evidence shows that TIM-1 and TIM-3 in­fluence chronic autoimmune diseases, and their expression levels in immune cells from nephritic patients are still unknown. Real-time transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to deter­mine expression levels of TIM-1 and TIM-3 mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 36 patients with minimal change glo­merulopathy (MCG), 65 patients with lupus nephritis (LN), 78 patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN), 55 patients with membranous nephropa­thy (MN), 22 patients with crescentic glomerulonephritis (CGN), 26 patients with anaphylactoid purpura nephritis (APN), and 63 healthy controls. TIM-3 mRNA expression significantly decreased in PBMCs from nephritic patients (LN, P < 0.0001; MCG, P < 0.0001; MN, P = 0.0031; CGN, P = 0.0464; IgAN, P = 0.0002; APN, P = 0.0392) com­pared with healthy controls. In contrast, there was no significant differ­ence in TIM-1 mRNA expression between the patients and the healthy controls. Our results suggest that insufficient expression of TIM-3 mRNA may be involved in the pathogenesis of nephropathy.