Expression of human T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin-3 (TIM-3) on kidney tissue from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of TIM-3 in renal tissue from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and patients without SLE, and to evaluate the difference of TIM-3 expression between them. A total of 272 patients with SLE as SLE group and 62 patients without SLE as control group were enrolled in the present study. Patients with SLE accepted percutaneous renal biopsy. We examined the expression of TIM-3 in renal tissue and the serological parameters in serum from all enrolled cases. The expression of TIM-3 and serological parameters were compared between the different groups. Positive staining of TIM-3 protein was seen in 97.1 % patients with SLE (264 out of 272), but 95.2 % negative staining in the cases without SLE (59 out of 62), only 3 out of 62 patients in control group were positive staining of TIM-3. There were significant differences between two groups in almost all serological markers which reflect SLE activity. There was a nearly positive correlation between pathological manifestations and expression degree of TIM-3. High immuno-reactivity of TIM-3 was found to be significantly correlated with serological grade (p < 0.001), but there was the phenomenon in control group. The results showed that there was the expression of TIM-3 in renal tissue from the patients with SLE, but rarely expression in cases without SLE. Expression of TIM-3 was associated with the diseases’ activity.