Glomerular diseases are often chronic or recurring and thus associated with a tremendous physical, psychological, and economic burden. Their etiologies are often unknown, and their pathogeneses are frequently poorly understood. The diagnoses and management of these diseases are therefore based on clinical features, traditional laboratory markers, and, often, kidney pathology. However, the clinical presentation can be highly variable, the kidney pathology may not establish a definitive diagnosis, and the therapeutic responses and resulting clinical outcomes are often unpredictable. To try to address these challenges, significant research efforts have been made over the last decade to identify potential biomarkers that can help clinicians optimize the diagnosis and prognosis at clinical presentation, as well as help predict long-term outcomes. Unfortunately, these efforts have to date only identified a single biomarker for glomerular disease that has been fully validated and developed for widespread clinical use (anti-PLA2R antibodies to diagnose membranous nephropathy). In this manuscript, we review the definitions and development of biomarkers, as well as the current knowledge on both historical and novel candidate biomarkers of glomerular disease, with an emphasis on those associated with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.

肾小球疾病通常是慢性的或反复发作​​的，因此与巨大的身体、心理和经济负担有关。它们的病因通常是未知的，并且它们的发病机制通常知之甚少。因此，这些疾病的诊断和管理基于临床特征、传统实验室标志物以及通常的肾脏病理学。然而，临床表现可能高度可变，肾脏病理学可能无法确定明确的诊断，并且治疗反应和由此产生的临床结果通常是不可预测的。为了应对这些挑战，在过去十年中，人们进行了大量的研究工作来确定潜在的生物标志物，这些生物标志物可以帮助临床医生优化临床表现时的诊断和预后，并帮助预测长期结果。不幸的是，迄今为止，这些努力仅确定了一种已被充分验证并开发用于广泛临床应用的肾小球疾病生物标志物（用于诊断膜性肾病的抗 PLA2R 抗体）。在这篇手稿中，我们回顾了生物标志物的定义和发展，以及目前关于肾小球疾病的历史和新的候选生物标志物的知识，重点是那些与特发性肾病综合征相关的生物标志物。