Single-Nephron GFR in Patients With Obesity-Related Glomerulopathy

Obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG) is a slowly progressive kidney disease occurring in association with obesity. It is characterized histopathologically by glomerulomegaly, likely caused by single-nephron hyperfiltration that has not been demonstrated in humans because of technical difficulty in measuring single-nephron glomerular filtration rate (SNGFR) in the clinical setting.

Total glomerular number per kidney, with or without global glomerulosclerosis, was estimated by the combination of cortical volume assessment via unenhanced computed tomography and biopsy-based stereology. Mean glomerular volume was calculated from the measured area of glomerular tufts. Both SNGFR and single-nephron urinary protein excretion (SNUPE) were estimated by dividing values for estimated glomerular filtration rate and urinary protein excretion by the number of nonsclerotic glomeruli. Living kidney donors were used as healthy controls.

A total of 48 ORG patients with average nonsclerotic glomerular numbers of 456,000 ± 235,000 per kidney were included. The values for SNGFR in ORG patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 1 and 2 were higher than for nonobese and obese controls (97 ± 43 vs. 59 ± 21 vs. 64 ± 21 nl/min, respectively, P = 0.001). Nonsclerotic glomerular number decreased with advancing stages of renal functional impairment. The presence of ORG with more advanced CKD stages was associated with lower SNGFR and marked elevation in SNUPE levels, with no difference in the mean glomerular volume between the stages.

These results provide functional evidence for single-nephron hyperfiltration in patients with ORG, and identify compensatory failure to maintain effective SNGFR as a feature of advanced-stage ORG.