Now, more than 10 years later, they got their hands on blood from the mother and the infant. The level of suPAR in the mother was 4635pg/ml and in the child was 5225 pg/ml. This compares with a mean of 2884 pg/ml in controls. Unfortunately, the family moved away from the area so there were no follow-up samples. However, the patient’s pediatrician reported that the baby’s urine was negative for albumin at one year of age.
Although this does not definitively prove that suPAR is the causative agent in primary FSGS, and there is some debate about the true pathogenicity, this, along with recently published data in JASN, adds to the weight of evidence suggesting that this may be the elusive factor we were looking for. Interesting times indeed.