Background - Diabetic microvascular disease is present mainly as retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy and vascular abnormalities in the lower extremities, leading to visual impairment, kidney failure, stroke, diabetic cardiomyopathy, and lower extremity dysfunction, respectively. Fatty acid-binding proteins (FABPs) are members of the intracellular lipid-binding protein (ILBP) family which plays an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy and chronic kidney diseases.
Aim - to evaluate Urinary liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (u-LFABP) biomarker for the occurrence and development of nephropathy in diabetic patients with and without renal disease.
Patients and Methods - In this cross sectional study 100 patients were enrolled divided into three groups; Control Group; included 40 normal healthy individuals; Early Diabetic Nephropathy Group (Early-DN); included 30 patients of Type II diabetes and Diabetic Kidney Disease Group (DKD) 30 patients of type II diabetes, all groups evaluated u-LFABP biomarker using ELISA technique.
Results - Our results revealed that u-LFABP level was highly significant increased (P<0.001) in early DN group and in DKD patients compared to normal control indicating tubular damage. The levels of u- LFABP increased gradually with declining renal function and reduced e-GFR
Conclusion - u-LFABP tubular markers are good predictive factors for DN and DKD characterized with high diagnostic performance. Considering the urinary protein, creatinin, eGFR and provided the high diagnostic information for diagnosing DN. u-LFABP considered as tubular factor that represents kidney state of diabetic patients. It could be used as sensitive marker in predicting progression of DKD than proteinuria in Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.