Chronic Kidney Disease is associated with an increase of Intimal Dendritic cells in a comparative autopsy study

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and inflammation are risk factors for atherosclerotic vascular disease (ASVD). In inflammatory conditions, Nuclear Factor-κB (NF-κB) is frequently activated and it has been detected in human ASVD. In this work, we investigated if the degree of inflammation and of NF-κB activation were increased in the aorta of patients with CKD.

This is a case-control pilot study performed on 30 abdominal aorta samples from 10 human autopsies. Cases were patients with CKD and controls patients with normal glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Infiltrating mononuclear cells (S100(+), CD3(+), CD40(+), CD40L(+)) and activation of NF-κB were identified by immunohistochemistry.

The number of cells in the intima which showed activated nuclear NF-κB correlated with severity of ASVD lesions (r = 0.56, p = 0.003), with numbers of CD3(+) lymphocytes in adventitia (r = 0.50, p = 0.008), with numbers of CD40(+) cells in the intima (r = 0.59, p = 0.002) or in the adventitia (r = 0.45, p = 0.02), and with numbers of CD40L(+) cells in the intima (r = 0.51, p = 0.011). Increased numbers of S100+ Intimal Dendritic cells (IDCs) were associated with ASVD (p = 0.03) and CKD (p = 0.01).

Number of CD3(+) cells, of CD40(+) cells, of CD40L(+) cells and the degree of NF-κB activation were increased in ASVD lesions suggesting a role for the adaptive T cell in the development of ASVD lesions. IDCs were associated both with ASVD and CKD suggesting a role of these cells in the pathogenesis of ASVD in CKD.