2018 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program: Seattle, Washington, June 14 - 15, 2018

In conclusion, body temperature, Hb, RBC, MCHC, and ratio of neutrophil to lymphocyte are good prognostic factors in both obstructive and non-obstructive BKLK syndrome. Surprisingly, the length of the bigger kidney cannot determine the prognosis. NGAL, a 25-kDa glycoprotein belonging to lipocalin superfamily, acts as promising renal biomarker for humans, dogs and cats. Urinary NGAL had been reported with 3 configurations, including monomer, dimer and the complex with matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in human and laboratory animals. It is recently characterized in canine and feline urinary disease in our research group. MMP-9 plays an important role in regulating the degradation of extracellular matrix in process such as angiogenesis, tumor growth and metastasis. Additionally it has been reported that MMP-9 involves in renal fibrosis in chronic kidney disease (CKD). In addition, HJV, the upstream modulator of hepcidin-ferroportin axis, has been identified as a novel renal biomarker of acute kidney injury (AKI) and CKD in human renal diseases. Interestingly, both HJV and NGAL serve as modulators of inflammation, MMP-9 is involved in the expression of NGAL, and association of NGAL prevents MMP-9 auto-degradation; hence it is possible that these proteins work cooperatively in the course of feline renal diseases. To resolve this unknown issue, we aimed to characterize the overall expression profile of three factors in cats with urinary diseases. In feline CKD, both NGAL and MMP-9 can represent the severity. Urinary NGAL and MMP-9 were significantly higher in CKD stage 3 and CKD stage 4 than that in the control group and CKD stage 2. However, urine MMP-9 may not be appropriate to indicate CKD progression. In CKD group and pyuria groups, both urinary NGAL and MMP-9 concentrations and their ratio to urinary creatinine had significant correlations (The Spearman correlation values were 0.64, 0.59, 0.57, and 0.61 in order). However, these correlations could not be identified in AKI group. Moreover, for detection of feline HJV, recombinant feline HJV was prepared for generation of antibody against feline HJV. At present, the expression of HJV was detected in feline urine with Western blot analysis. To quantify the concentration of HJV, development of an ELISA platform is in process.