ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a promising renal biomarker, can exists as a monomer, a dimer and/or in a NGAL/matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) complex form when associated with different urinary diseases in humans and dogs. In this study, the presence of the various different molecular forms of NGAL in cat urine (uNGAL) was examined and whether these forms are correlated with different urinary diseases was explored. RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-nine urine samples from cats with various different diseases, including acute kidney injury (AKI, 22 cats), chronic kidney disease (CKD, 55 cats), pyuria (44 cats) and other non-renal and non-pyuria diseases (non-RP, 26 cats), as well as healthy animals (12 cats), were collected. The molecular forms of and concentrations of urinary NGAL in these cats were analyzed, and their uNGAL-to-creatinine ratio (UNCR) were determined. The cats with AKI had the highest UNCR (median: 2.92 × 10- 6), which was followed by pyuria (median: 1.43 × 10- 6) and CKD (median: 0.56 × 10- 6); all of the above were significantly higher than the healthy controls (median: 0.17 × 10- 6) (p < 0.05). Three different NGAL molecular forms as well as the MMP-9 monomer were able to be detected in the cat urine samples. Moreover, the cases where urine NGAL monomer were present also had significantly higher levels of BUN (median: 18.9 vs 9.6 mmol/L) and creatinine (327.1 vs 168 umol/L). The presence of dimeric NGAL was found to be associated with urinary tract infections. Most cats in the present study (126/159, 79.2%) and more than half of healthy cats (7/12, 58.3%) had detectable NGAL/MMP-9 complex present in their urine. CONCLUSIONS: The monomeric and dimeric molecular forms of uNGAL suggest upper and lower urinary tract origins of disease, respectively, whereas the presence of the uNGAL/MMP-9 complex is able to be detected in most cats, including seemingly healthy ones.
