Correlation between Albuminuria Levels and Chitinase 3 like 1 Protein in Iraqi Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

          Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic diseases attributed to lack of insulin secretion, insulin activity, or both. The most serious medical problems in hyperglycemia is diabetic nephropathy (DN), originating from the aggregation of inflammatory cells in high numbers. Chitinase 3 like 1 protein (CH3L1P) is a new biomarker for chronic and severe inflammatory conditions. It has been suggested to have a role in the progress of diabetes-associated micro and macro-vascular complications. This paper aims to measure CH3L1P levels and examine their correlation with albuminuria levels in Iraqi patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Our study involved 66 T2DM patients (41males and 25 females with age ranging from 30 to 70 years, who were distributed into three groups; (A1) normoalbuminuria, (A2) microalbuminuria and (A3) macroalbuminuria, each group consisting of twenty-two patients. The control (C) group involved 22 healthy individuals (11 males and 11 females). Whole blood was used to estimate Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), while serum was used to measure other biochemical parameters, and the urine to measure urine creatinin (U.CR), urine albumin (U.A) & albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR). A quantitative sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine serum CH3L1P level. Results revealed that the levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), HbA1c and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were significantly higher in the patients (A1, A2 and A3 groups) compared to C group (P<0.001). Moreover, mean CH3L1P level significantly increased in the three T2DM patient group (A1, A2 and A3) (1327.20±294.44, 1434.82±305.26, 1602.90±409.50 pg/ml, respectively) as compared to the C group (626.81±103.15 pg/ml). CH3L1P levels in the blood were substantially higher in T2DM patients, with a clear correlation with the increase in albuminuria levels. As a result, it can be concluded that serum CH3L1P level may be used as an early detection marker of DN in T2DM patients.