Photo Credit: ALIOUI Mohammed Elamine
The following is a summary of “ITGAM-mediated macrophages contribute to basement membrane damage in diabetic nephropathy and atherosclerosis,” published in the February 2024 issue of Nephrology by Lou et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to investigate the shared pathogenic processes underlying the progression of diabetic nephropathy (DN) and atherosclerosis (AS), particularly focusing on the basement membrane lesions observed in both diseases.
They utilized transcriptomic profiles obtained from DN and AS patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Employing an amalgamation of integrated bioinformatics methodologies and machine learning models, they pinpointed pivotal genes associated with basement membrane lesions in both conditions. The investigation delved into the role of integrin subunit alpha M (ITGAM) through immune infiltration analysis and genetic correlation studies. A single-cell sequencing analysis was conducted to delineate the expression pattern of ITGAM across various cell types within DN and AS tissues.
The results showed that ITGAM emerged as a pivotal gene implicated in basement membrane modifications, with its primary expression detected in macrophages in both DN and AS. ITGAM exhibited a significant correlation with tissue immune infiltration in these conditions. The genes encoding fundamental basement membrane constituents’ expression levels were influenced by ITGAM expression.
Investigators concluded that the study suggests that targeting a molecule called ITGAM in macrophages could be a promising strategy to reduce basement membrane damage in DN and AS.
Source: bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12882-024-03505-1