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The serum uromodulin level is associated with kidney function

  • Lorenz Risch EMAIL logo , Karl Lhotta , Dominik Meier , Pedro Medina-Escobar , Urs E. Nydegger and Martin Risch
Published/Copyright: June 14, 2014
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 52 Issue 12

Abstract

Background: In chronic kidney diseases of various etiologies, the urinary excretion of uromodulin is usually decreased in parallel with the glomerular filtration rate. This study aimed to investigate whether serum uromodulin is associated with kidney function.

Methods: Within the framework of the Seniorlabor study, a subset of subjectively healthy individuals 60 years of age and older were included in the study. Serum uromodulin was measured with ELISA. The relationship between serum uromodulin and different stages of kidney function (i.e., cystatin C-based 2012-CKD-EPI eGFRCysC>90 mL/min/1.73 m2, 60–89 mL/min/1.73 m2, 45–59 mL/min/1.73 m2, and <45 mL/min/1.73 m2) was investigated. Furthermore, the relationship between serum uromodulin and other markers of kidney function (i.e., creatinine, cystatin C, and urea) was assessed.

Results: In total, 289 participants (140 males/149 females; mean age 71±7 years) were included in the study. There were significant differences in serum uromodulin among the four groups according to different kidney function stages (p<0.001). Serum uromodulin displayed inverse relationships with creatinine (r=–0.39), cystatin C (r=–0.42), and urea (r=–0.30) and, correspondingly, a positive relationship with eGFRCysC (r=0.38, p<0.001 for all). These associations remained intact when fitting a regression model that incorporated age, gender, body mass index, and current smoking status as covariates.

Conclusions: Serum uromodulin behaves in a manner opposite that of the different conventional renal retention markers by displaying lower concentrations with decreasing kidney function. As uromodulin is produced by the cells of the thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle, lower uromodulin serum levels may reflect a reduction in number or function of these cells in chronic kidney disease.

Keywords: creatinine; cystatin C; glomerular filtration rate; Tamm-Horsfall protein: urea; uromodulin
Corresponding author: Lorenz Risch, MD, MPH, Labormedizinisches Zentrum Dr. Risch, Waldeggstrasse 37, 3097 Liebefeld, Switzerland, Phone: +41 31 9790000, Fax: +41 31 9790099, E-mail: ; and Private University, Triesen, Liechtenstein; and Division of Clinical Biochemistry, Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

Acknowledgments

We thank Dorothea Hillmann, Elsbeth Lenggenhager, Carmel Froidevaux-Walz, and Franck Flahaut for their excellent technical assistance.

Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ conflict of interest disclosure: The authors stated that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article. Research sponsoring played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

Research funding: None declared.

Employment or leadership: None declared.

Honorarium: None declared.

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Supplemental Material

The online version of this article (DOI 10.1515/cclm-2014-0505) offers supplementary material, available to authorized users.

Received: 2014-3-17
Accepted: 2014-5-21
Published Online: 2014-6-14
Published in Print: 2014-12-1

©2014 by De Gruyter

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2014-0505
Keywords for this article
creatinine; cystatin C; glomerular filtration rate; Tamm-Horsfall protein: urea; uromodulin

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorials
  3. CCLM Award for The Most Cited Paper Recently Published
  4. Laboratory preparedness to face infectious outbreaks. Ebola and beyond
  5. Reviews
  6. Determination of reference limits: statistical concepts and tools for sample size calculation
  7. Recent advances in physiological lipoprotein metabolism
  8. New laboratory markers for the management of rheumatoid arthritis patients
  9. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  10. The impact of repeat-testing of common chemistry analytes at critical concentrations
  11. Performance of CKD-EPI equation to estimate glomerular filtration rate as compared to MDRD equation in South Brazilian individuals in each stage of renal function
  12. The serum uromodulin level is associated with kidney function
  13. Efficient assessment of peripheral blood lymphocytosis in adults: developing new thresholds for blood smear review by pathologists
  14. Performance evaluation of Sysmex XN hematology analyzer in umbilical cord blood: a comparison study with Sysmex XE-2100
  15. UF-1000i: validation of the body fluid mode for counting cells in body fluids
  16. Newborn screening for haemoglobinopathies by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC): diagnostic utility of different approaches in resource-poor settings
  17. Progressive chromogenic anti-factor Xa assay and its use in the classification of antithrombin deficiencies
  18. Reference Values and Biological Variations
  19. Thyroid-stimulating hormone reference range and factors affecting it in a nationwide random sample
  20. Reference ranges for serum β-trace protein in neonates and children younger than 1 year of age
  21. A multicenter nationwide reference intervals study for common biochemical analytes in Turkey using Abbott analyzers
  22. Serum reference intervals of homoarginine, ADMA, and SDMA in the Study of Health in Pomerania
  23. Cancer Diagnostics
  24. Low SOX17 expression: prognostic significance in de novo acute myeloid leukemia with normal cytogenetics
  25. Results of first proficiency test for KRAS testing with formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded cell lines in China
  26. Aberrant hypermethylation of CTNNA1 gene is associated with higher IPSS risk in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome
  27. Cardiovascular Diseases
  28. Association between SNP rs13376333 and rs1131820 in the KCNN3 gene and atrial fibrillation in the Chinese Han population
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  30. Acknowledgment
  31. Letters to the Editor
  32. Interference in thyroid hormones with Roche immunoassays: an unfinished story
  33. Discrepant results in plasma, but not serum in the Beckman Coulter DxI Access HYPERsensitive hTSH 3rd generation assay affect the management of differentiated thyroid cancer and hyperthyroid patients
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