Umesh Deshmukh, PhD University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Approximately one-third of people with lupus develop nephritis,
a complication that can cause kidney failure and sometimes
requires chronic dialysis or transplantation. Most research
suggests that antibodies in the kidney play a role in the
development of kidney failure in lupus, but exactly how this
occurs is unclear. “It starts with antibodies, there's no doubt
about it,” Dr. Deshmukh says. “But antibody alone is not
sufficient, you have to have T cells going into the kidney,” he
says. T cells regulate immune responses in lupus. Using
carefully selected mouse models, Deshmukh and colleagues
investigated whether it is antibodies alone that form the basis
for kidney disease in lupus as well as where, when, and how T
cells come into play. Through the course of their research, Dr.
Deshmukh and colleagues not only gathered substantial evidence
to support their original hypothesis, but went on to work on a
new mouse model of lupus in which they can t