Open Access Research article

Relationships between serum MCP-1 and subclinical kidney disease: African American-Diabetes Heart Study

Mariana Murea1*†, Thomas C Register2†, Jasmin Divers3, Donald W Bowden4, J Jeffrey Carr5, Caresse R Hightower5, Jianzhao Xu4, S Carrie Smith4, Keith A Hruska6, Carl D Langefeld3 and Barry I Freedman1*

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Internal Medicine/Nephrology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157-1053, USA

2 Department of Pathology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157, USA

3 Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157, USA

4 Department of Internal Medicine/Endocrinology/Centers for Diabetes Research and Human Genomics, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157, USA

5 Department of Radiology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157, USA

6 Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA

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BMC Nephrology 2012, 13:148 doi:10.1186/1471-2369-13-148

Published: 14 November 2012

Abstract

Background

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) plays important roles in kidney disease susceptibility and atherogenesis in experimental models. Relationships between serum MCP-1 concentration and early nephropathy and subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) were assessed in African Americans (AAs) with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Methods

Serum MCP-1 concentration, urine albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and atherosclerotic calcified plaque (CP) in the coronary and carotid arteries and infrarenal aorta were measured in 479 unrelated AAs with T2D. Generalized linear models were fitted to test for associations between MCP-1 and urine ACR, eGFR, and CP.

Results

Participants were 57% female, with mean ± SD (median) age 55.6±9.5 (55.0) years, diabetes duration 10.3±8.2 (8.0) years, urine ACR 149.7±566.7 (14.0) mg/g, CKD-EPI eGFR 92.4±23.3 (92.0) ml/min/1.73m2, MCP-1 262.9±239.1 (224.4) pg/ml, coronary artery CP 280.1±633.8 (13.5), carotid artery CP 47.1±132.9 (0), and aorta CP 1616.0±2864.0 (319.0). Adjusting for age, sex, smoking, HbA1c, BMI, and LDL, serum MCP-1 was positively associated with albuminuria (parameter estimate 0.0021, P=0.04) and negatively associated with eGFR (parameter estimate −0.0003, P=0.001). MCP-1 remained associated with eGFR after adjustment for urine ACR. MCP-1 levels did not correlate with the extent of CP in any vascular bed, HbA1c or diabetes duration, but were positively associated with BMI. No interaction between BMI and MCP-1 was detected on nephropathy outcomes.

Conclusions

Serum MCP-1 levels are associated with eGFR and albuminuria in AAs with T2D. MCP-1 was not associated with subclinical CVD in this population. Inflammation appears to play important roles in development and/or progression of kidney disease in AAs.

Keywords:
African Americans; Albuminuria; Atherosclerotic calcified plaque; Diabetes; GFR; MCP-1