Serum adropin levels as a potential biomarker for predicting diabetic kidney disease progression.

Background: To investigate the value of serum adropin in predicting chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Materials and methods: Serum adropin levels were measured in normal control and T2D patients with various stage of CKD. CKD progression was defined as ≥ 30% decline from the baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate. Logistic regression analysis was applied to assess the association between adropin levels and CKD progression.

Results: The study included 58 subjects with T2D (18 early CKD and 40 advanced CKD) and 9 subjects without diabetes (control). Subjects with T2D had significantly higher adropin levels than controls (6393.10 ± 1611.84 vs. 3470.30 ± 1284.41 pg/ml; P < 0.001). Meanwhile, T2D patients with advanced CKD had higher adropin levels than those with early CKD (6848.89 ± 1287.04 vs. 5380.25 ± 1826.44 pg/ml; P = 0.003). Among T2D patients, subjects experienced CKD progression had higher adropin levels than those without (7520.15 ± 843.21 vs. 6151.16 ± 1661.61 pg/mL, P =0.003). Thus, adropin predicts CKD progression in T2D patients with 86% sensitivity and 70% specificity at 6872.24 pg/ml cutoff value. The association with CKD progression was still significant after adjusting for age, gender and body mass index (adjusted odds ratio = 27.188, 95% confidence interval 1.415-522.527, P =0.029).

Conclusions: The above findings suggest that serum adropin could be applied as a potential biomarker for predicting CKD progression in subjects with T2D. Further research is needed to validate these results and explore the underlying mechanisms.