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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND 4.0BMC Nephrology

Potential implications of targeting CSF1R in diabetic nephropathy associated fibrosis

  • Dongshan Chen1
  • Zihao Gao2
  • Haochen Cui1
  • Chenfei Wang3
  • Cong Zhang1
  • Dong Wu4
  • Yuanwei Zang1
4 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
  2. 2Department of Urology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital Affiliated Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  3. 3College of Foreign Languages, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
  4. 4Department of General Surgery, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
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Abstract

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a prevalent and serious complication of diabetes, characterized by chronic inflammation and progressive kidney damage. This study aimed to investigate the role of immune checkpoint-related genes (ICGs) in the pathogenesis of DN. We integrated and analyzed gene expression data of DN patients from multiple GEO databases and identified 33 differentially expressed ICGs. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that these genes are involved in immune response and inflammation-related pathways. Immune cell infiltration analysis indicated a significant increase in immune cell abundance in the kidneys of DN patients. CSF1R was consistently identified as a key gene using various methods, including LASSO regression, machine learning algorithms (GLM, RF, SVM, XGB), and WGCNA analysis focusing on both disease-related and cluster-related modules. The identification of CSF1R was further validated in an external dataset and single-cell RNA sequencing data. CSF1R was upregulated in DN patients and played a crucial role in regulating immune responses and inflammation. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed the involvement of CSF1R in renal fibrosis, indicating its potential as a therapeutic target for DN. This study provides valuable insights into the role of ICGs and CSF1R in the pathogenesis of DN and suggests their potential as targets for diagnosis and treatment.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-026-05266-5.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{chen2026potential,
  title = {{Potential implications of targeting CSF1R in diabetic nephropathy associated fibrosis}},
  author = {Dongshan Chen and Zihao Gao and Haochen Cui and Chenfei Wang and Cong Zhang and Dong Wu and Yuanwei Zang},
  journal = {BMC Nephrology},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.1186/s12882-026-05266-5},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-026-05266-5},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Potential implications of targeting CSF1R in diabetic nephropathy associated fibrosis
AU  - Dongshan Chen
AU  - Zihao Gao
AU  - Haochen Cui
AU  - Chenfei Wang
AU  - Cong Zhang
AU  - Dong Wu
AU  - Yuanwei Zang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/01
JO  - BMC Nephrology
DO  - 10.1186/s12882-026-05266-5
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-026-05266-5
AB  - Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a prevalent and serious complication of diabetes, characterized by chronic inflammation and progressive kidney damage. This study aimed to investigate the role of immune checkpoint-related genes (ICGs) in the pathogenesis of DN. We integrated and analyzed gene expression data of DN patients from multiple GEO databases and identified 33 differentially expressed ICGs. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that these genes are involved in immune response and inflammation-related pathways. Immune cell infiltration analysis indicated a significant increase in immune cell abundance in the kidneys of DN patients. CSF1R was consistently identified as a key gene using various methods, including LASSO regression, machine learning algorithms (GLM, RF, SVM, XGB), and WGCNA analysis focusing on both disease-related and cluster-related modules. The identification of CSF1R was further validated in an external dataset and single-cell RNA sequencing data. CSF1R was upregulated in DN patients and played a crucial role in regulating immune responses and inflammation. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed the involvement of CSF1R in renal fibrosis, indicating its potential as a therapeutic target for DN. This study provides valuable insights into the role of ICGs and CSF1R in the pathogenesis of DN and suggests their potential as targets for diagnosis and treatment.  Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-026-05266-5.
SN  - 1471-2369
ER  -