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Updated: Sep 28, 2025

An Efficient Sieving Method to Isolate Intact Glomeruli from Adult Rat Kidney
Published on: November 1, 2018
Urinary Podocyte Count as a Potential Routine Laboratory Test for Glomerular Disease: A Novel Method Using
Junichi Sakane1, Hirotsugu Kitayama2, Takashi Inoue1
1Department of Clinical Laboratory, Shizuoka Children's Hospital, Shizuoka, Japan.
Introduction:
This study investigated whether our urinary podocyte detection method using podocalyxin (PDX) and Wilms tumor 1 (WT1) immunoenzyme staining combined with liquid-based cytology can serve as a noninvasive routine laboratory test for glomerular disease.
Methods:
The presence of PDX- and WT1-positive cells was investigated in 79 patients with glomerular disease and 51 patients with nonglomerular disease.
Results:
The frequencies and numbers of PDX- and WT1-positive cells were significantly higher in the glomerular disease group than in the nonglomerular disease group. The best cutoffs for PDX- and WT1-positive cell counts for identifying patients with glomerular disease were 3.5 (sensitivity = 67.1% and specificity = 100%) and 1.2 cells/10 mL (sensitivity = 43.0% and specificity = 100%), respectively.
Conclusion:
Because our urinary podocyte detection method using PDX immunoenzyme staining can be standardized and it detected glomerular disease with high accuracy, it can likely serve as a noninvasive routine laboratory test for various glomerular diseases.
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