Decreased serum myonectin concentrations in diabetic nephropathy patients

Myonectin is a newly discovered myokine correlated with diabetes. Diabetic nephropathy (DN), which is diagnosed according to albuminuria, is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes. Albuminuria predisposes to future cardiovascular diseases and mortality. The aim of this study is to assess the association between serum myonectin concentrations with DN. A total of 188 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and 66 control subjects were enrolled in this investigation. T2DM patients were divided into three groups: normoalbuminuria (n = 84), microalbuminuria (n = 70), and macroalbuminuria (n = 34) according to urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR). T2DM patients showed lower serum myonectin concentrations compared with the controls. Serum myonectin concentrations were significantly decreased in macroalbuminuria group than in normoalbuminuria and microalbuminuria groups. In addition, microalbuminuria group had decreased serum myonectin concentrations compared with normoalbuminuria group. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated a correlation between serum myonectin and a decreased risk of T2DM and DN. Simply linear regression analysis indicated serum myonectin was negatively correlated body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, uric acid, and ACR, and positively correlated with glomerular filtration rate, insulin treatment. BMI, ACR, and insulin treatment were still correlated with the serum myonectin after a multiple linear regression analysis. Our investigation indicates serum myonectin is decreased in DN patients and correlated with renal function.