Table 2.

Expression of Toll-like receptors (TLR)-2, -4 and -9 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and correlation to proteinuria.

	Control	Relapse	Remission	P	Proteinuria
Number of patients	10	9	6	n.a.	n.a.
Relative TLR-2 expression
PBMC	4·01 ± 0·59	4·13 ± 0·78	2·98 ± 0·27	0·33	r = −0·26, P = 0·34
CD4+ T cells	1·50 ± 0·14	1·71 ± 0·16	1·39 ± 0·11	0·37	r = 0·06, P = 0·84
CD8+ T cells	1·31 ± 0·10	1·35 ± 0·08	1·19 ± 0·06	0·49	r = 0·18, P = 0·52
CD14+ monocytes	6·40 ± 1·10	7·88 ± 1·24	5·10 ± 0·47	0·30	r = 0·28, P = 0·31
CD19+ B cells	2·94 ± 0·44	3·04 ± 0·37	2·31 ± 0·22	0·42	r = 0·09, P = 0·75
Relative TLR-4 expression
PBMC	2·82 ± 0·37	2·47 ± 0·24	2·81 ± 0·58	0·81	r = −0·36, P = 0·19
CD4+ T cells	1·83 ± 0·24	1·75 ± 0·23	1·73 ± 0·30	0·89	r = −0·37, P = 0,17
CD8+ T cells	1·40 ± 0·14	1·58 ± 0·18	1·49 ± 0·22	0·79	r = −0·11, P = 0·69
CD14+ monocytes	3·06 ± 0·35	2·67 ± 0·20	3·51 ± 0·22	0·15	r = −0·12, P = 0·67
CD19+ B cells	2·76 ± 0·38	2·54 ± 0·19	2·59 ± 0·51	0·96	r = −0·13, P = 0·66
Relative TLR-9 expression
PBMC	86·3 ± 19·2	133·7 ± 31·6	141 ± 41·8	0·54	r = −0·13, P = 0·64
CD4+ T cells	136·4 ± 34·7	165·5 ± 42·3	186·4 ± 58·9	0·72	r = −0·09, P = 0·75
CD8+ T cells	129·6 ± 29·8	192·9 ± 40·7	162·4 ± 38·1	0·75	r = −0·06, P = 0·84
CD14+ monocytes	58·8 ± 10·4	88·8 ± 18·0	53·7 ± 7·9	0·62	r = −0·35, P = 0·23
CD19+ B cells	115·3 ± 32·7	191·9 ± 27·5	244·5 ± 66·32	0·19	r = −0·27, P = 0·32

TLR expression was measured in PBMC subsets by flow cytometry and results are expressed as mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of TLR/MFI of isotype control, and no significant difference between groups was observed using the Kruskal–Wallis test, P > 0·05; r corresponds to Spearman's rank correlation test used to assess the correlation between TLR expression of total PBMC and each PBMC subset from idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS) patients and proteinuria (g/mmol creatinine), and no significant correlation was found; n.a. = not applicable.