Augmented transcripts of kidney injury markers and renin angiotensin system in urine samples of overweight young adults

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 21154
• Main Authors: Rivera, Patricia, Miranda, Catalina, Roldán, Nicole, Guerrero, Aaron, Olave, Javier, Cárdenas, Pilar, Nguyen, Quynh My, Kassan, Modar, Gonzalez, Alexis A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 03.12.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/443; 631/45; 692/4017; 692/499; 692/53; Adipose Tissue; Adiposity; Adolescent; Angiotensin; Angiotensinogen; Angiotensinogen - metabolism; Biomarkers - urine; Blood Glucose - metabolism; Blood Pressure; Body fat; Body Mass Index; Body water; Body weight; Connective tissue growth factor; Connective Tissue Growth Factor - genetics; Connective Tissue Growth Factor - urine; Connective tissues; Diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent); Fasting - blood; Female; Gelatinase; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hypertension; Interleukin 18; Interleukin-18 - genetics; Interleukin-18 - urine; Kidney - injuries; Kidney - metabolism; Kidney - physiopathology; Kidney diseases; Kidneys; Linear Models; Lipocalin; Male; multidisciplinary; Overweight; Overweight - genetics; Overweight - urine; Renin; Renin - metabolism; Renin-Angiotensin System - genetics; Risk factors; RNA, Messenger - genetics; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Urine; Young Adult; Young adults
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-78382-3

Obesity has been firmly established as a major risk factor for common disease states including hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and chronic kidney disease. Increased body mass index (BMI) contributes to the activation of both the systemic and intra-tubular renin angiotensin systems (RAS), which are in turn associated with increased blood pressure (BP) and kidney damage. In this cross-sectional study, 43 subjects of normal or increased body weight were examined in order to determine the correlation of BMI or body fat mass (BFM) with blood pressure, fasting blood glucose (FBG), and urinary kidney injury markers such as interleukin-18 (IL-18), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1). Our results showed that: (1) subjects with increased body weight showed significantly higher BP, BFM, total body water and metabolic age; (2) BMI was positively correlated to both systolic (R 2  = 0.1384, P  = 0.01) and diastolic BP (R 2  = 0.2437, P  = 0.0008); (3) BFM was positively correlated to DBP (R 2  = 0.1232, P  = 0.02) and partially correlated to urine protein (R 2  = 0.047, P  = 0.12) and FBG (R 2  = 0.07, P  = 0.06); (4) overweight young adults had higher urinary mRNA levels of renin, angiotensinogen, IL-18 and CTGF. These suggest that BMI directly affects BP, kidney injury markers, and the activation of the intra-tubular RAS even in normotensive young adults. Given that BMI measurements and urine analyses are non-invasive, our findings may pave the way to developing a new and simple method of screening for the risk of chronic kidney disease in adults.