Serum levels of adiponectin and leptin as biomarkers of proteinuria in lupus nephritis

PLoS One. 2017 Sep 12;12(9):e0184056. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184056. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Introduction: There are controversial results about the role of serum leptin and adiponectin levels as biomarkers of the severity of proteinuria in lupus nephritis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between serum leptin and adiponectin levels with severity of proteinuria secondary to lupus nephritis (LN).

Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 103 women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were evaluated for kidney involvement. We compared 30 SLE patients with LN, all of them with proteinuria, versus 73 SLE patients without renal involvement (no LN). A comprehensive set of clinical and laboratory variables was assessed, including serum levels of leptin and adiponectin by ELISA. Multivariate analyses were used to adjust for potential confounders associated with proteinuria in LN.

Results: We found higher adiponectin levels in the LN group compared with the no LN group (20.4 ± 10.3 vs 15.6 ± 7.8 μg/mL; p = 0.02), whereas no differences were observed in leptin levels (33.3 ± 31.4 vs 22.5 ± 25.5 ng/mL; p = 0.07). Severity of proteinuria correlated with an increase in adiponectin levels (r = 0.31; p = 0.001), but no correlation was observed with leptin. Adiponectin levels were not related to anti-dsDNA or anti-nucleosome antibodies. In the logistic regression, adiponectin levels were associated with a high risk of proteinuria in SLE (OR = 1.06; 95% CI 1.01-1.12; p = 0.02). Instead, leptin was not associated with LN.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that adiponectin levels are useful markers associated with proteinuria in LN. Further longitudinal studies are required to identify if these levels are predictive of renal relapse.

MeSH terms

  • Adiponectin / blood*
  • Adult
  • Biomarkers
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Leptin / blood*
  • Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / complications
  • Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / diagnosis
  • Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / drug therapy
  • Lupus Nephritis / blood*
  • Lupus Nephritis / complications*
  • Lupus Nephritis / diagnosis
  • Lupus Nephritis / etiology
  • Middle Aged
  • Proteinuria / diagnosis*
  • Proteinuria / etiology*
  • Risk Factors
  • Severity of Illness Index

Substances

  • Adiponectin
  • Biomarkers
  • Leptin

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by a grant of the Fondo de Investigacion en Salud (FIS) of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS). Grant number: FIS/IMSS/PROT/G11/937, held by the Ph.D. Jorge Ivan Gamez-Nava (JIGN), corresponding of this work. Dr. Gamez-Nava JI, was the supervisor of this work, he received the funding by the IMSS to make this possible. He also contributed in the conceptualization, the formal analysis, investigation, methodology of the manuscript, the project administration, he provided resources, he made part of the validation of the data, the software and supervision and the writing-original draft preparation, review and editing the final version.