Association between engulfment and cell motility 1-gene polymorphisms and diabetic nephropathy in an Egyptian population with type 2 diabetes.

Purpose: Engulfment and cell motility 1 (ELMO1), is a candidate gene responsible for cell motility and phagocytosis. However, its role in the development and progression of nephropathy attributed to T2D is still unknown. Kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) plays a significant role in renal regeneration processes. The current study aimed to evaluate the association between kidney injury molecule-1 levels, ELMO1 gene polymorphism (rs741301, and rs1345365) as well as DN in an Egyptian population with T2D.
Methods: In this study, we enrolled 89 participants from the internal medicine outpatient clinic, 23 T2DM without DN, 22 with DN, and 44 control subjects. They were genotyped by real-time PCR. Serum level of KIM-1 was detected by ELISA.
Results: Serum KIM-1 level was correlated with DM duration, HbA1C, and UACR (P value <0.001) in T2D. There was no significant difference in the allelic and genotypic frequencies of rs741301 and rs1345365 between participants with DM who presented with albuminuria and those without. Results showed that rs1345365A/rs741301T and rs1345365G/rs741301C haplotypes were more common in patients with T2D than in HCs. However, the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.262 and 0.414, respectively). Conclusions: KIM-1 can be a useful non-invasive biomarker for detecting early DN. The association between ELMO1 gene polymorphisms and the risk of DN in patients with T2D was not validated. Therefore, further studies with a larger sample size must be conducted. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.