In this study, feline renal tissues from twelve client‐owned cats with chronic kidney disease and eight healthy control cats were examined for inflammation, tubular atrophy, and fibrosis, using reverse transcription‐quantitative PCR. Linear mixed models compared gene transcription between diseased and healthy kidneys, determining the association between transcript levels and serum creatinine concentration for all cats, as well as between transcript levels and histologic scores of diseased kidneys.

Kidneys from cats with chronic kidney disease had significantly higher transcript levels of all markers, except for lower levels of vascular endothelial growth factor-A, compared to kidneys from control cats. Transcript levels of matrix metalloproteinase-7 and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 were positively associated with serum creatinine in cats with chronic kidney disease, but not in control cats. 

Evaluation of the expression of these proteins in large populations could identify therapeutic targets and/or biomarkers of tubulointerstitial fibrosis in cats.

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Profibrotic genes in cats with Chronic Kidney Disease