Urinary netrin-1 concentration in healthy full-term newborns

Monika Kamianowska; Marek Szczepański; Elżbieta E Kulikowska; Barbara Bebko; Alicja Koput; Anna Wasilewska

doi:10.5114/aoms/89591

Urinary netrin-1 concentration in healthy full-term newborns

Arch Med Sci. 2021 Jan 5;17(1):47-52. doi: 10.5114/aoms/89591. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Monika Kamianowska¹, Marek Szczepański¹, Elżbieta E Kulikowska¹, Barbara Bebko¹, Alicja Koput², Anna Wasilewska³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland.
² Department of Pediatric Laboratory Diagnostics, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland.
³ Department of Pediatrics and Nephrology, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland.

Abstract

Introduction: Monitoring of renal function in acute kidney injury in the pediatric population is complicated by the lack of age-related reference values of new biomarkers. Urinary netrin-1 is a new marker to demonstrate early kidney damage. Netrin-1 has a molecular mass of 72 kDa. It is therefore unlikely that it is filtered by the glomerulus under normal conditions. However, netrin-1 is highly induced after acute and chronic kidney injury and excreted in urine in humans. The aim of the study was to determine the normal concentrations of urinary netrin-1 in healthy full-term newborns.

Material and methods: The study included 88 healthy full-term neonates (51 boys and 37 girls) born from normal, uncomplicated pregnancies. The concentration of netrin-1 was determined in urine obtained on the first or second day of life with a commercially available ELISA kit.

Results: The urinary concentration of netrin-1 in newborns was independent of gender and time of urine collection. We found a negative correlation between both the urinary netrin-1 concentration and urinary netrin-1 concentration after normalization for urinary creatinine and the birth weight.

Conclusions: This is the first study showing the urinary netrin-1 concentration in healthy full-term newborns. Future investigation is needed to confirm its potential role as a marker of kidney function in this age group.

Keywords: healthy; netrin-1; newborn; normal ranges.