Cystatin C is a potential biomarker for predicting hyperhomocysteinemia associated with chronic kidney disease: A retrospective cross-sectional study.

Background and objectiveHyperhomocysteinemia (HHCY) is regarded as a significant risk factor for both fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular incidents in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. The objective of this research was to investigate the association between cystatin C (CYSC) and HHCY in individuals diagnosed with CKD.MethodsRetrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on clinical data and laboratory data of 85 individuals with CKD. The patients were divided into two distinct groups according to a threshold homocysteine (HCY) level of 15 µmol·L-1: the normal HCY group consisting of 40 cases, and the high HCY group (HHCY) comprising 45 cases. Moreover, the correlation between CYSC and HCY was examined. The correlation between CYSC and HCY was assessed. To further validate this relationship, HCY levels were measured in the culture medium following CYSC overexpression and silencing in vitro.ResultsOur study found that CYSC levels were significantly elevated in CKD-associated HHCY patients compared to CKD patients without concurrent HHCY (p < 0.05). CYSC and HCY showed a positive correlation (p < 0.05). CYSC was determined to be an Independent risk factor for CKD-associated HHCY. In vitro experiments have demonstrated that elevated levels of HCY were observed in the culture supernatants from OE-CYSC mesangial cells compared with the control and OE-negative control groups (p < 0.05). Conversely, the opposite trend occurs.ConclusionsIn conclusion, the findings suggest that CYSC may be the potential to serve as a biomarker to detect high HCY levels associated with CKD.