In clinical, β2-M is mainly used to assess the early damage of kidney tubule. The elevation of β2-M indicates the renal tubule diseases or the damages of kidney tubule caused by medicines or toxins. The second, if the β2-M persistently increases after the kidney transplant, which indicates that the rejection reaction has not gotten well controlled.
Like the β2-M, α1-Microglobulin(α1-M) is either presented as the form of dissociation or the combination form combined with IgG, or albumin. The combination type of α1-M cannot get through the glomerular filtration membrane, while the free style of α1-M can get through glomeruli, while 99% or so of them would be reabsorped and metabolized by the renal epthelial cells in proximal tubules, so like the β2-M, α1-M could be removed out of the body with a small amount.
Compared with β2-M, α1-M is not subject to influence of malignant tumors, and there will be no such phenomenon of the false negative results. Soα1-M is more reliable.
If the serum and urine α1-M both increase, then it indicates both the functions of GFR and the renal tubule’ reabsorption have been harmed. So serum α1-M is an more sensitive index in assessing both the glomerular filtration and renal tubules’ reabsorption functions.
These are the basic introduction of α1-M and β2-M, both of which are the markers for the detection of the degree of renal tubules’ harms.
