ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetic nephropathy is the leading causeof End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) emerging indeveloped as well as developing countries, with thecomplicated pathogenesis. The study of expression ofthe genes related to kidney cells e.g. podocytes has beenshown to be associated with the condition, helping in theelucidation of pathogenesis of the disease. Previouslythe gene expression associated was studied in urinesamples. Material and Methods: In the present study, itwas attempted to analyze the mRNA expression ofpodocyte related genes viz. podocalyxin, podocin andsynaptopodin in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells(PBMCs) in patients with diabetes with and withoutnephropathy in comparison with healthy controls byreverse transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR), followed by semi-quantitative PCR. Results:The expression of Synaptopodin (SYNPO) wasincreased in diabetics than the controls, while nosignificant difference was found for Podocalixyn(PODXL) and Podocin (NPHS2). The expression ofPODXL and NPHS2 was significantly up-regulated;SYNPO was unaltered in microalbuminuric patientsthan healthy controls. PODXL and SYNPO wereincreased significantly in nephropathy subjects thancontrols, with no significant change in NPHS2. Theexpression of only PODXL was found to be upregulated in microalbuminuric patients as compared toT2DM patients without nephropathy. PODXL, SYNPOwere significantly up-regulated and NPHS2 wassignificantly down-regulated in nephropathy subjects ascompared to T2DM patients without nephropathy. Asignificant down-regulation was found for NPHS2expression in nephropathy patients than microalbuminuric patients of T2DM with nephropathy.Conclusion: The detection of gene expression of theseproteins can be used as an early marker for the detectionof development of nephropathy in T2DM patients andpreventive measures can be taken to prolong the onsetof nephropathy in these patients, increasing the lifeexpectancy.