Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has become the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in most countries. Recently, long noncoding RNA XIST has been found involved in the development of DKD. METHODS: A total of 1184 hospitalized patients with diabetes were included and divided into four groups based on their estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR): normal control group (nDKD), DKD with normoalbuminuric and reduced eGFR (NA-DKD), DKD with albuminuria but without reduced eGFR (A-DKD), and DKD with albuminuria and reduced eGFR (Mixed), and then their clinical characteristics were analyzed. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with DKD were isolated, and lncRNA XIST expression was detected by real-time quantitative PCR. RESULTS: The prevalence of DKD in hospitalized patients with diabetes mellutus (DM) was 39.9%, and the prevalence of albuminuria and decreased eGFR was 36.6% and 16.2%, respectively. NA-DKD, A-DKD, and Mixed groups accounted for 23.7%, 3.3%, and 12.9%, respectively. Women with DKD had considerably lower levels of lncRNA XIST expression in their PBMCs compared to nDKD. There was a significant correlation between eGFR level and lncRNA XIST expression (R = 0.390, P = 0.036) as well as a negative correlation between HbA1c and lncRNA XIST expression (R = - 0.425, P = 0.027) in female patients with DKD. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that 39.9% of DM inpatients who were admitted to the hospital had DKD. Importantly, lncRNA XIST expression in PBMCs of female patients with DKD was significantly correlated with eGFR and HbA1c.