2.1 Subjects
Fouty children with INS (28 males and 12 females; median age: 38 months; age range: 22-55 months) were enrolled in this study. The study participants were recruited from the inpatient pediatric population at Shenzhen Children’s Hospital between the dates of September 2015 and October 2016. These children met all the inclusion criteria: 1) The diagnostic criteria for INS prepared by 2010 evidence-based diagnosis and treatment guidelines for common kidney diseases in pediatrics in China ; 2) All of them were hormone-sensitive children, that is, children with negative urine protein within 4 weeks of treatment with sufficient hormones and no other immunosuppressants; 3) No secondary kidney disease (such as secondary nephrotic syndrome, nephrotic nephrotic syndrome or congenital kidney disease etc.); 4) No other systemic viscera syndrome; 5) Signed informed consent. According to the condition, they were divided into first-onset group (20 cases, atopic constitution, 6 cases, 14 cases of non-atopic constitution) and remission group (20 cases, atopic constitution, 6 cases, non-atopic constitution 14 cases). Defined as children with nephrotic syndrome for the first time, the selection criteria for remission patients were children with kidney disease who had stopped hormones for more than 4 weeks and had normal blood biochemical and urine tests. Tweety age-similar matched children (11 males and 9 females; median age: 31.3 months; age range: 18-112 months) who came to our hospital for physical examination during the same period were enrolled in the healthy controls (Ctrl). Informed consent was obtained from the parents of all patients as a condition of study enrollment, and the study was carried out with pre-approval by the local Medical Ethics Committee.