Introduction & Objective: Diabetes kidney disease (DKD) is common complication of diabetes and it is currently considered as the primary cause of end-stage renal disease. Ferroptosis is a newly defined regulatory cell death caused by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation, and it plays a key role in the development of DKD. This study was aimed to examine in vivo the involvement of ferroptosis in diabetes-related pathological changes in the kidney.
Methods: 30 DKD patients diagnosed with renal tissue pathology from the Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University and 10 healthy controls were selected for H&E, PASM staining, and immunohistochemical staining to evaluate pathological changes such as renal inflammation and fibrosis, as well as changes in the expression of iron death related proteins; At the same time, general statistical data and clinical test data of each group of patients were collected, and further logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis were performed to explore independent risk factors and diagnostic efficacy of DKD.
Results: The expressions of iron death-related proteins GPX4, ACSL4, FTH and FTL were increased in renal tissues of DKD patients, while the expressions of Nrf2 and TfR1 were decreased.And the expression levels of Nrf2 and ACSL4 proteins in kidney tissue are influential factors for the occurrence of DKD, and have high diagnostic efficacy for DKD.
Conclusion: The current study showed that ferroptosis contributes to diabetes-related pathological changes in the kidney, and we demonstrated that ferroptosis was involved in the development of DKD.
M. Li: None. Y. Zhou: None. Q. Gao: None.
Project of Hebei Provincial Health Commission (20230093)
