In a new study, researchers found that studying small molecules the body produces during metabolism (metabolites) may be a future key to identifying diabetes-related kidney disease.
The research was conducted by a team from Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University in China and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Diabetes-related kidney disease is a common complication linked to type 2 diabetes.
Diagnosis of the condition typically requires a surgical biopsy of the kidney. It is invasive and may bring health risks.
It is important to seek noninvasive methods to aid diagnosis and management.
In the new study, the team examined metabolites in the blood of three groups of people with diabetes.
One group had type 2 diabetes without kidney disease, one group had early-stage diabetes-related kidney disease, and one group had advanced diabetes-related kidney disease.
The team used a current database containing numerous known metabolites and found that the groups of people with diabetes and healthy adults without diabetes only seven metabolites.
The metabolites varied according to whether or not they had diabetes or early- and late-stage kidney disease.
The researchers say that differences in small-molecule metabolites may reflect underlying diabetes-related kidney disease and serve as tools to monitor disease occurrence and development.
The new findings may help establish an early warning system for type 2 diabetes patients to monitor the kidney disease.
One author of the study is Dong Zhou, MD, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The study was presented at the American Physiological Society (APS)/American Society of Nephrology (ASN) conference.
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