Association Between Serum Asprosin and Diabetic Nephropathy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the Community: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective

To explore the association between serum asprosin and diabetic nephropathy (DN) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the community.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we retrospectively collected the clinical data of T2DM patients from a community health service center in southeastern Shanxi Province between November 2019 and July 2021. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of asprosin levels on the risk of DN.

Results

Among 498 T2DM patients included in this study, 221 had microalbuminuria, 105 had massive albuminuria, and 172 did not have any signs of nephropathy. Serum asprosin level was positively correlated with diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, triglycerides, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, creatinine, ACR and albumin-to-creatinine ratio (all P < 0.05) and negatively correlated with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, HbA1c and estimated glomerular filtration rate (all P < 0.05). After adjusting for covariates, increased asprosin was associated with diabetic nephropathy (all OR = 2.560, 95% CI: 1.1592–4.116; P < 0.001).

Conclusion

The risk of DN significantly increases with serum asprosin levels, especially among female patients.

Keywords:

• asprosin
• type 2 diabetes mellitus
• diabetic nephropathies
• creatinine
• albuminuria
• logistic models
• community health services

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the China Diabetes Research Fund, China Foundation for International Medical Exchanges (Z-2017-26-1902-3) and the Youth Scientific research project of Basic Research Program of Shanxi Province (20210302124289).