Fibroblast growth factor 21 may be a strong biomarker for renal outcomes: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Background

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is deemed to play an important role in kidney outcomes, while the association between FGF21 and various kidney diseases remains largely unclear and inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to find out the role of FGF21 in various renal diseases.

Methods

The outcome indicator of our study was assessed by the pooled standard mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) which were calculated by random-effect model analysis. The risk of bias was assessed by Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. Funnel plot combined with Egger’s and Begg’s tests was performed to estimate the publication bias that existed in the study.

Results

A total of 28 eligible studies with 19348 participants were included in our research. The agreement between authors reached a kappa-value of 0.88. Overall, the serum FGF21 level was strongly higher in CKD patients (SMD = 0.97 (ng/L); 95% CI, 0.70—1.24 (ng/L)) and the renal outcomes in T2DM patients (SMD = 0.54 (ng/L); 95% CI, 0.39–0.70 (ng/L)) compared with the control group. Consistent with this, the incidence of CKD (OR = 2.56; 95% CI, 1.72–3.81) and the incidence of renal outcomes (OR = 1.63; 95% CI, 1.31–2.01) in T2DM patients was significantly higher in the patients with high FGF21 concentration, indicating that high serum FGF21 level may predict the incidence of CKD and the renal outcomes in T2DM patients.

Conclusion

Serum FGF21 may be one of the strong predictors for various kidney diseases including the progression of CKD and the hard renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes patients, but more large-scale clinical research are needed to confirm this finding.

Keywords:

• Fibroblast growth factor 21
• chronic kidney disease
• renal outcomes
• meta-analysis

Author contributions

Conceptualization, S.H.; methodology, Y.G., L.L. and S.H.; software, Y.G.; validation, Y.G., L.L. and S.H.; formal analysis, Y.G. and L.L; investigation, S.H.; resources, S.H.; data curation, Y.G.; writing—original draft preparation, Y.G.; writing—review and editing, S.H.; visualization, S.H.; supervision, L.L. and S.H.; project administration, S.H.; funding acquisition, S.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflicts of interest.

The authors declare that no conflicts of interest exist.

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during the present study are included in this published article.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (2022JJ30808).