Study of some autophagy markers in type 2 diabetic patients with and without diabetic nephropathy

Background: One of the most prevalent and serious side effects of diabetes mellitus (DM) is diabetic nephropathy (DN), which is linked to higher mortality and morbidity rates in diabetic individuals. Autophagy is essential for the survival of podocytes. This work was designed to assess autophagy in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with and without diabetic nephropathy (DN). Methods: This case-control work was performed on 50 patients with T2DM. They were divided according to urinary albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) into the following subgroups; Group IA: 25 individuals without DN and Group IB: 25 individuals with DN. Every individual who participated had a medical taking of history and laboratory tests including routine investigations of Fasting blood sugar (FBS), HbA1c, Urinary albumin creatinine ratio (UACR), Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) and specific Detection of LAMP2 relative gene expressions in peripheral leucocytes by quantitative reverse transcription-real time PCR (qRT-qPCR). Results: LAMP2 mRNA expression levels were substantially decreased in diabetic individuals with nephropathy than in those without. Conclusions: These data suggest that there was inhibition of the autophagy pathway in diabetic individuals with DN than in those without and that impaired autophagy may be involved in the progression to DN.