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Linkage and Association Study of Neurotrophins and Their Receptors as Novel Susceptibility Genes for Childhood IgA Nephropathy

Neurotrophins (NTs) and their receptors (NTRs) are known to be important for pathogenesis of various inflammatory diseases that occur in not only neuronal but also nonneuronal tissues, including kidney. Here, we investigated association between childhood IgA nephropathy (IgAN) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of genes encoding NTs [nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)] and NTRs [nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR) and neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor 1–3 (NTRK1–3)]. The genotyping data of 197 patients and 289 control subjects revealed significant association between NGF SNP rs11102930 and presence of IgAN. Patient subgroup analysis revealed that that the presence of nephrotic range proteinuria (>40 mg/m2/h) was associated with rs6334 of NTRK1 and rs11030104, rs7103411, rs7103873, and rs6484320 of BDNF. Significant genotype differences were observed in podocyte foot process effacement for rs1187321 and rs1187323 of NTRK2. Furthermore, some SNPs showed significantly different genotype distribution between patients with or without pathologically advanced disease markers, specifically in rs6334 of NTRK1. Our results suggest that SNPs of NTs and NTRs are associated with susceptibility, pathological advancement, podocyte foot process effacement, and development of proteinuria in childhood IgAN.