Podocalyxin in the onset of nephropathy among Indian type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

The diabetic nephropathy is one of the most prevalent microvascular complications with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The most accurate and widely used marker for diabetic nephropathy is microalbuminuria and it is also regarded as conventional method. However, it is not a sensitive or specific nephropathy biomarker. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the role of podocalyxin to predict early onset of nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. This cross - sectional study is conducted on 150 subjects. Among these 150 T2DM patients (Group 2: T2DM with normoalbuminuria and Group 3: T2DM with microalbuminuria) and 50 were age, gender and BMI matched healthy controls (Group 1). The biochemical and experimental parameters was analyzed. T2DM patients have higher levels of urine podocalyxin. This level was significantly elevated in patients with T2DM with microalbuminuria than normoalbuminuria. Urinary podocalyxin levels and HbA1c were found to be positively correlated. Thus, urinary podocalyxin is useful as early predictable marker for nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.