The correlation of circulating miR-29b and inflammatory markers with albuminuria in hypertensive patients

ABSTRACT

Aims

Circulating miR-29b and inflammatory process play a vital role in hypertension and hypertensive nephropathy. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association of circulating miR-29b and inflammatory markers with albuminuria and assess the predictive value of circulating miR-29b for albuminuria in essential hypertension.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was continuously enrolled 150 subjects and were divided into three groups based on random urinary albumin/creatinine ratio (UACR, mg/g), the patients with ACR<30 mg/g were classified as normal albuminuria, the values of 30< ACR<300 was defined as micro-albuminuria while the group with ACR over 300 mg/g are macro-albuminuria. Circulating miR-29b was assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Multivariate logistic regression and area under the ROC curve (AUC) were used.

Results

We found miR-29b, C-reactive protein, and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in macro-albuminuria group were significantly higher than those in the micro-albuminuria and normal albuminuria group. The level of miR-29b was positively associated with TGF-β1, C-reactive protein, and UACR, while negatively related to glomerular filtration rate. Circulating miR-29b was a significant independent determinant factor for albuminuria.

Conclusion

Our results provided a clinical evidence of a positive association between circulating miR-29b, inflammatory markers, and UACR, and implied miR-29b was a significant independent determinant factor for albuminuria.

KEYWORDS:

• Hypertension
• MiR-29b
• inflammatory marker
• albuminuria
• hypertensive nephropathy

Declaration of interests

The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2015A030313660), the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou (No.201604020143, No.201604020018, No.201604020186, and No.201803040012), the Medical Science and Technology Research Fund of Guangdong Province (No.B2018023), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No.2017YFC1307603) and the Key Area R&D Program of Guangdong Province (No.2019B020227005).