Diabetes with kidney injury may change the abundance and cargo of urinary extracellular vesicles.

Background: Urinary extracellular vesicles (uEVs) are derived from epithelia facing the renal tubule lumen in the kidney and urogenital tract; they may carry protein biomarkers of renal dysfunction and structural injury. However, there are scarce studies focusing on uEVs in diabetes with kidney injury. Materials and methods: A community-based epidemiological survey was performed, and the participants were randomly selected for our study. uEVs were enriched by dehydrated dialysis method, quantified by Coomassie Bradford protein assay, and adjusted by urinary creatinine (UCr). Then, they identified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nanoparticle track analysis (NTA), and western blot of tumor susceptibility gene 101. Results: Decent uEVs with a homogeneous distribution were finally obtained, presenting a membrane-encapsulated structure like cup-shaped or roundish under TEM, having active Brownian motion, and presenting the main peak between 55 and 110 nm under NTA. The Bradford protein assay showed that the protein concentrations of uEVs were 0.02 ± 0.02, 0.04 ± 0.05, 0.05 ± 0.04, 0.07 ± 0.08, and 0.11 ± 0.15 µg/mg UCr, respectively, in normal controls and in prediabetes, diabetes with normal proteinuria, diabetes with microalbuminuria, and diabetes with macroproteinuria groups after adjusting the protein concentration with UCr by calculating the vesicles-to-creatinine ratio. Conclusion: The protein concentration of uEVs in diabetes with kidney injury increased significantly than the normal controls before and after adjusting the UCr. Therefore, diabetes with kidney injury may change the abundance and cargo of uEVs, which may be involved in the physiological and pathological changes of diabetes.

Predictive value of vascular endothelial growth factor polymorphisms on the risk of renal cell carcinomas: a case-control study.

We conducted this case-control study to assess the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) -2578C/A, +460T/C, +1612G/A, +936C/T, and -634G/C polymorphisms in the development of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and analyzed the association of gene polymorphisms with demographic and clinical characteristics of RCC. This study included 412 consecutive primary RCC patients and 824 controls. The polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was performed to detect VEGF -2578C/A, +460T/C, +1612G/A, +936C/T, and -634G/C polymorphisms. Compared with the control subjects, the RCC cancer cases were more likely to have a habit of cigarette smoking, and suffered from hypertension and diabetes. Conditional logistic regression analysis showed that individuals carrying the AA genotype of -2578C/A were more likely to greatly increase risk of RCC, and the CC genotype of +460T/C revealed a significant association with increased risk of RCC. The CA + AA genotype of -2578C/A had a significantly increased risk of RCC in ever cigarette smokers, and individuals who suffered from hypertension and diabetes. TC + CC genotype of +460T/C was significantly associated with the elevated risk of RCC in those suffered from hypertension and diabetes. Our study suggests that -2578C/A and +460T/C polymorphisms of VEGF modulate the risk of developing RCC in Chinese population.