Changes of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing protein 3 inflammasomes in peripheral blood of patients with diabetic nephropathy and its clinical significance / 中华内分泌外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the changes of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes in peripheral blood of patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN) and its clinical significance.Methods:208 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) admitted to our hospital from Feb. 2018 to Dec. 2020 were selected and were divided them into 3 groups according to the urine albumin (UA) /urinary creatinine (UC) ratio (UACR) simple T2DM group (UACR<30 mg/g) 83 cases, microalbuminuria group (UACR 30-300 mg/g) 70 cases, and massive proteinuria group (UACR>300 mg/g) 55 cases; Fifty healthy volunteers were selected as the control group. General data of each group were collected. Western blot was used to detect the level of NLRP3 in peripheral blood, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit was used to detect the level of serum interleukin (IL) -1β and IL-18. Logistic regression was employed to analyze the occurrence of DN in T2DM patients. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) curve was used to analyze the value of NLRP3, IL-1β, IL-18 in the diagnosis of DN in peripheral blood.Results:Compared with the control group, the course of disease, FBG, LDL-C, TG, TC, SCr, BUN, HbA1c, NLRP3 protein, IL-1β and IL-18 significant increased in the other 3 groups, and HDL-C, ALB, and eGFR were significant decreased, and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05) . The order of their level changes was massive proteinuria group>microalbuminuria group>pure T2DM group; Pearson test found that peripheral blood NLRP3, IL-1β, IL-18 levels were significantly positively correlated with UACR, LDL-C, TG, and TC ( P<0.001) , while they were significantly negatively correlated with HDL-C ( P<0.001) .The results of unconditional Logistic regression analysis showed that the course of disease, FBG, HDL-C, LDL-C, TG, TC, SCr, BUN, ALB, HbA1c, eGFR, NLRP3 protein, IL-1β and IL-18 may all be related to DN-related in patients with T2DM ( P<0.05) . Multivariate analysis found that high levels of BUN, ALB, HbA1c, EGFR, NLRP3 protein and IL-1 were found β and IL-18 are high risk factors for DN in patients with T2DM ( P<0.05) . The ROC curve showed that the combination of peripheral blood NLRP3, IL-1β, and IL-18 predicted the highest AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of DN in patients with T2DM as 0.918, 93.40%, and 90.13%, respectively. Conclusions:Different stages of DN are often accompanied by increased levels of NLRP3, IL-1β, and IL-18 in peripheral blood. Strengthening the monitoring of NLRP3 inflammasome levels can help assess the renal function of patients and provides a theoretical basis for early diagnosis of DN.