Looking to prevent kidney damage in lupus

Kidney damage linked to the autoimmune disease lupus is associated with a malfunction of immune cells that causes them to congregate in and attack the organs, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered in a mouse study.In a separate study with an international team, the scientists also observed that a certain set of genes appears to protect the kidneys from a different sort of immune attack in both mice and humans."These studies, taken together, uncover two important molecules that underlie the pathology of lupus, especially kidney disease," said Dr. Edward Wakeland, chairman of immunology at UT Southwestern and co-senior author of the studies."In addition, they highlight a certain molecule as a potential target for treating this disease," he said.In the first study, which appears in the recent issue of The Journal of Immunology, the scientists examined several strains of mice that mimic human lupus. They observed that immune cells in those mice overproduced a particular molecule called CXCR4. In fact, the mice had up to twice as much CXCR4 as their normal counterparts in several types of immune cells. The lupus-prone mice also had more immune-system cells in their kidneys, indicating that the inflammatory action of the immune cells might be causing the kidney damage