Kidney VISTA prevents IFN-γ/IL-9 axis-mediated tubulointerstitial fibrosis after acute glomerular injury.

Severe glomerular injury ultimately leads to tubulointerstitial fibrosis that determines patient outcome, but the immunological molecules connecting these processes remain undetermined. The present study addressed whether V-domain Ig suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA), constitutively expressed in kidney macrophages, plays a protective role in tubulointerstitial fibrotic transformation after acute antibody-mediated glomerulonephritis. After acute glomerular injury using nephrotoxic serum, tubules in the VISTA-deficient (Vsir-/-) kidney suffered more damage than those in WT kidneys. When interstitial immune cells were examined, the contact frequency of macrophages with infiltrated T cells increased and the immunometabolic features of T cells changed to showing high oxidative phosphorylation and fatty acid metabolism and overproduction of IFN-γ. The Vsir-/- parenchymal tissue cells responded to this altered milieu of interstitial immune cells as more IL-9 was produced, which augmented tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Blocking antibodies against IFN-γ and IL-9 protected the above pathological process in VISTA-depleted conditions. In human samples with acute glomerular injury (e.g., antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody vasculitis), high VISTA expression in tubulointerstitial immune cells was associated with low tubulointerstitial fibrosis and good prognosis. Therefore, VISTA is a sentinel protein expressed in kidney macrophages that prevents tubulointerstitial fibrosis via the IFN-γ/IL-9 axis after acute antibody-mediated glomerular injury.

Cardiovascular Risk Comparison between Expanded Hemodialysis Using Theranova and Online Hemodiafiltration (CARTOON): A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.

Expanded hemodialysis (HDx) with medium cutoff (MCO) membranes, which remove middle-to-large molecules well, may be a good option to replace online hemodiafiltration (online-HDF). To provide more evidence, this randomized controlled trial compared several cardiovascular parameters between patients undergoing HDx and online-HDF. Eighty patients undergoing thrice-weekly hemodialysis were randomly assigned to receive either HDx with a Theranova membrane (n = 43) or online-HDF (n = 37). The primary endpoints were changes in brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), echocardiographic parameters, and coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores over 1 year, and the secondary endpoints included blood cardiovascular biomarkers, mortality, and patient-reported outcomes. A linear mixed model and log-rank test were used to estimate the group differences. 65 patients had completed the trial. The changes in baPWV and echocardiographic parameters did not differ between the two groups. The CAC scores remained stable in the online-HDF group, whereas an increasing trend was shown in the HDx group (P = 0.012). Other endpoints, including cardiovascular and all-cause mortalities, were similar between the two groups. The changes in cardiovascular parameters did not differ between HDx with an MCO membrane and online-HDF. However, attention may be needed in patients with high CAC scores or scores with an increasing tendency when online-HDF is replaced with HDx with an MCO membrane.