Fatty Acid Binding Protein (1 & 2) as Markers of Diabetic Nephropathy in Elderly Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background: The 15kDa cytoplasmic fatty acid-binding protein family (FABPs) is one of the most exciting novel indicators for the diagnosis of renal damage.
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relation of circulating FABP1 and FABP2 levels as clinical and biochemical markers and varying stages of nephropathy in senior T2DM patients.
Patients and Methods: This case-control study included a total of 60 patients with Type 2 diabetes and 30 nondiabetic controls, attending and followed up at Out-Patient Clinics, Department of Internal Medicine, Zagazig University Hospitals. Patients were divided into 3 equal groups: Group I: healthy control group; Group II: diabetic group without incidence of diabetic nephropathy; Group III: diabetic nephropathy group. All patients were tested for FABP1 and FABP2. Results: FABP1 and FABP2 levels significantly varied among the study's three groups. The significance was referred to the higher expression of FABP1 and FABP2 in group II and III than controls and higher expression in group III than group II as illustrated in post-hoc analysis. There were significant positive Pearson correlations between FABP1, FABP2 and serum creatinine, serum urea, urine albumin-creatinine ratio (uACR) while the correlation between FABP1, FABP2 and eGFR was inverse correlation of significance.
Conclusion: It could be concluded that FABP1 and FABP2 may be novel biomarkers of diabetic nephropathy. FABP1 has an 87% sensitivity and an 83% specificity for the diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy at a cut-off value equal to 2.7 ng/dL. FABP2 has a 93% sensitivity and a 33% specificity for diagnosing diabetic nephropathy at a cut-off value equal to 0.16 ng/dL.