#328 Non-invasive assessment of urinary exfoliated proximal tubule cells using multispectral autofluorescence imaging features for early detection of CKD
Authors: Wu Henry Hl , Lang Yandong , Knab Aline , Agha Adnan , Nguyen Long The , Goldys Ewa M , Pollock Carol , Saad Sonia 
Published: May 2024

Background and Aims

Early detection of CKD is important to allow for timely intervention which may reduce adverse clinical outcomes and cost of renal replacement therapies. Histopathological diagnosis of CKD remains the gold standard, but routine kidney biopsy is costly and associated with risks such as pain and bleeding. There is a need to develop accurate non-invasive methods for early diagnosis and prognostication of CKD. Kidney cell exfoliation into urine is an active process, which may generate significant information regarding an individual's kidney status. In particular, proximal tubule cells (PTCs) make up majority of the kidney mass and represents the hallmark of CKD in reflecting the degree of tubulointerstitial fibrosis and atrophy. Multispectral assessment of native cell autofluorescence has been specifically shown to be sensitive to metabolic changes and oxidative stress, which are key factors involved in kidney function decline. Hence, we evaluated whether multispectral autofluorescence signals in urinary exfoliated PTCs reflect kidney function as determined by eGFR.

Method

Individuals aged 18 or above were included and informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in this study. Spot urine samples were collected and stored at -80°C. On assessment, exfoliated PTCs were extracted from thawed urine using a validated specific immunomagnetic separation method based on anti-CD13 and anti-SGLT2 antibodies. Multispectral autofluorescence imaging was performed using a custom-made autofluorescence microscopy system (standard Olympus iX83™ fluorescence microscope and multispectral excitation lamp from Quantitative™, AU). Images were captured by a Nüvü™ EMCCD camera HNü 1024 cooled to -65°C in our laboratory to reduce sensor-induced noise. For the 34 image channels taken per sample, image acquisition times of up to 5 seconds per channel, with multiple averaging (3 times) was applied to optimize image quality. Image analysis was conducted through a workflow encompassing data preprocessing, data normalization and outlier handling, followed by basic model training and evaluation. An entropy-based image feature selection methodology was initially completed by hand, with results subsequently compared to that generated from the AutoGluon machine-learning framework [1]. The models developed from this process were assessed using ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curves and AUC (Area Under the Curve) values. Two discriminative studies were performed – an overall study between exfoliated PTCs of individuals eGFR≥60 and eGFR &lt; 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 and a subgroup study between that of individuals eGFR≥90 and eGFR 60-90 ml/min/1.73 m2.

Results

40 individuals were included in our study. 20 individuals had eGFR≥60 and 20 had eGFR &lt; 60 ml/min/1.73 m2. Multispectral assessment of cell autofluorescence features differentiated between exfoliated PTCs of these 2 groups with AUC value of 0.97 (95% CI 0.94-1.00) (Fig. 1), model accuracy being 82%. Subgroup analysis included 20 individuals of which 10 had eGFR≥90 and 10 had eGFR 60-90 ml/min/1.73 m2. Multispectral assessment of cell autofluorescence features differentiated between exfoliated PTCs of these 2 groups with AUC value of 0.99 (95% CI 0.99-1.00) (Fig. 2), model accuracy being 85%.

Conclusion

An excellent degree of differentiation between urinary PTCs derived from those with normal or high eGFR and mild degrees of CKD is now reliably demonstrated, complementing conclusions from our group's original small pilot study which evaluated between urinary PTCs from CKD and non-CKD cohorts [2]. Further studies are required to determine whether our novel method can be used to non-invasively predict individuals at risk of progressive kidney disease and to monitor whether intervention is effective.