Association between urinary C4d levels and disease progression in IgA nephropathy

C4d mesangial deposition, a hallmark of lectin pathway activation in immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN), has been shown to be associated with risk of kidney failure. To date, the relationship between urinary C4d and renal outcome remain unelucidated.

A total of 508 patients with biopsy-proven IgAN were enrolled in this study, whose baseline urine samples at the time of biopsy were collected and the levels of urinary C4d were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The time-averaged C4d (TA-C4d) and the change in proteinuria were measured in sequential urine samples obtained from IgAN patients. The kidney progression event was defined as a 50% estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline or end-stage kidney disease or death.

After a median follow-up of 36 months, 70 (13.8%) of the participants reached the kidney progression event. Higher levels of urinary C4d/Ucr were found to be associated with decreased eGFR, massive proteinuria, lower serum albumin levels, hypertension, and severe Oxford E and T scores. Upon adjusting for traditional risk factors (including demographics, eGFR, proteinuria, hypertension, Oxford pathologic score and immunosuppressive therapy), elevated levels of urinary C4d/Ucr were independently associated with an increased risk of chronic kidney disease progression [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) per standard deviation increment of log-transformed C4d/Ucr: 1.46; 95% CI 1.04-2.06; P = .030]. In reference to the low C4d group, the risk of poor renal outcome increased for the high C4d group (adjusted HR 1.93; 95% CI 1.05-3.54; P = .033). Additionally, a low baseline C4d level was independently associated with a favorable proteinuria response to immunosuppressive therapy at 3 months (adjusted relative risk 2.20; 95% CI 1.04-4.63, P = .038).

The urinary C4d, serving as a non-invasive biomarker, is associated with the progression of IgAN and holds the potential to predict proteinuria response in this disease.