Study of Serum Betatrophin Level as A Novel Endocrinal Regulator Involved in Diabetic Nephropathy Development

Abstract
Background: Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. The chronic hyperglycemia of diabetes is associated with long-term damage, dysfunction and failure of various organs. Diabetic Nephrop-athy (DN) is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease which ultimately progresses to end stage renal disease. There-fore, early diagnostic markers for predicting and monitoring the progression of DN are needed to enable the timely admin-istration of the mostly appropriate protective treatments, we hypothesized that betatrophin may be a novel endocrine regulator involved in DN development.
Aim of Study: It was to examine circulating betatrophin level in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with or without diabetic nephropathy in comparison with healthy controls.
Patients and Methods: The study was carried out on forty patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. They were recruited from internal Medicine Department of Tanta University Hos-pital who classified into, 20 type 2 diabetic patients without nephropathy. 20 type 2 diabetic patients with nephropathy. Another twenty apparently healthy subjects were chosen from outpatient clinics of Tanta University Hospital and served as control group. This study was carried out from June 2016 to May 2017. An approval by Ethical Committee of Tanta Uni-versity Faculty of Medicine was obtained. They were subjected to thorough history taking, clinical examination including anthropometric measurements (sex, age, BMI) and laboratory investigations including glycated Hb, fasting and post prandial blood glucose, liver function tests, UACR, kidney function, lipid profile, serum betatrophin estimation by ELISA.
Results: Betatrophin was significantly higher in both T2DM with nephropathy and T2DM as compared to control group and significantly higher in T2DM with nephropathy than T2DM. There was significant positive correlation between betatrophin hormone and HbA1c, BMI, serum total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, LDL and negative correlation with HDL in both T2DM group and T2DM with nephropathy group. There was positive correlation between betatrophin and Albumin/Creatinine Ratio (ACR) in T2DM with nephropathy group.
Conclusion: There was no significant correlation between betatrophin and Albumin/Creatinine Ratio (ACR) in T2DM group, while there was positive correlation between betatrophin and ACR in diabetic nephropathy group. Thus, betatrophin may be a novel endocrinal regulator involved in diabetic nephropathy development.