Evaluation of glycogen synthase kinase 3β gene expression levels in blood samples of with patients with primary nephrotic syndrome and its association with response to glucocorticoids therapy

Abstract

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3β) is a serine/threonine kinase with multifunctions in various physiological procedures. Aberrant level of GSK-3β in kidney cells has important role in podocyte injury. Therefore, the of this study was measurement of the expression level of GSK-3β measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with the most common types of nephrotic syndrome (NS); focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN). Material and methods 52 NS patients along with 24 healthy individuals were included in this study based on the defined including criteria. GSK-3β expression level were investigated with quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) method. Results The obtained results showed that GSK-3β expression level in blood cells of NS (P = 0.001), MGN (P = 0.002), and FSGS (P = 0.015) groups have statistically significant increases in compared to the control group. In addition, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis approved diagnostic power of GSK-3β in discriminating patients from healthy controls (AUC: 0.72, P = 0.002) with high sensitivity and specificity.