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Role of beta(2)-microglobulin in the immune response in renal osteodystrophy
1Department of Cell Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655, USA. eva.balint@umassmed.edu
Seminars in Dialysis
|March 27, 2001
Abstract:
Renal osteodystrophy is the major cause of skeletal morbidity in dialysis patients. It is characterized by beta(2)-microglobulin (beta(2)M) amyloid deposition at the osteoarticular sites and a destructive arthropathy. beta(2)M is present on the surface of all nucleated cells as the small extracellular subunit of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecule and actively participates in the immune response. Accumulating evidence suggests that beta(2)M plays a key role in the development of renal osteodystrophy through a T cell-mediated inflammatory immune mechanism.