Association of plasma ghrelin levels with diabetic nephropathy

Abstract

AbstractBackground:Ghrelin is a 28-amino acid peptide hormone which is produced in various tissues such as the kidney. It is proposed that this hormone exerts a broad spectrum of biological functions throughout the body. Ghrelin carries out endocrine and/or paracrine functions in the kidney, which seems to be one of the target tissues of this hormone. Results regarding circulating ghrelin levels in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetic nephropathy (DN) patients are conflicting. We aimed to investigate the plasma ghrelin levels in type 2 diabetic patients with and without nephropathy.Methods:A total of 45 patients with DN and 45 patients with diabetes without diabetic nephropathy (NDN) were recruited for this study. Plasma ghrelin levels were determined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. The association of plasma ghrelin with concentrations of fasting glucose (FBS), creatinine (Cr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), triglycerides (TG) and anthropometric parameters was analyzed.Results:Plasma ghrelin concentration in the DN group was 1.16 (1.01–1.38) ng/mL and in the NDN group was 1.16 (0.92–1.41) ng/mL, so there were no significant differences between the two groups (p=0.467). In the NDN group, ghrelin showed an inverse correlation with TG (r=−0.467, p=0.001) and a direct correlation with HDL (r=0.562, p=0.000) but in the DN group these correlations were not found.Conclusions:Our findings implicated no relationship between the plasma ghrelin level and renal dysfunction in type 2 diabetic patients. Therefore, plasma ghrelin level may not be a probable indicator of kidney insufficiency in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Furthermore, we also found a positive correlation between ghrelin and HDL and an inverse correlation with TG levels.