Urinary podocalyxin levels were associated with urinary albumin levels among patients with diabetes

Abstract

Diabetic nephropathy has dramatically increased worldwide. In this study, we measured urinary podocalyxin in 240 patients with diabetes. The relationship between urinary podocalyxin and clinical parameters and the effects of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4i) and alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (a-GI) on urinary podocalyxin levels were examined. Urinary podocalyxin levels were significantly higher in patients with microalbuminuria than in those with normoalbuminuria. Urinary podocalyxin levels were also significantly related to albumin-to-creatinine ratio. Neither DPP4i nor α-GI ameliorated the increase in urinary podocalyxin levels. Our results indicated that urinary podocalyxin will be not only an early marker but also a treatment target for DN.

• Biomarker
• diabetic nephropathy
• podocyte
• urinary podocalyxin

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Mrs. Aki Watanabe and Mrs. Naoko Koizumi (Department of Clinical Cell Biology and Medicine, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine) for their valuable technical assistance.

Declaration of interest

All authors declare that there is no duality of interest associated with this manuscripts.

Contribution statement

M.S contributed to acquisition, analysis and researched data. K.K researched data. M.T. contributed conceptualization, design and wrote the manuscript.

N.S researched data and supported statistical analyses. K.Y. contributed to the discussion and reviewed/edited the manuscript.