Influence of Serum Chemerin Levels and RARRES Gene Polymorphism rs17173608 on Severity of Nephropathy in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

The adipokine, Chemerin is known to be elevated in Type 2 diabetes. But its significance in diabetic nephropathy is unclear. Since Chemerin gene variants may contribute to the inflammatory state in diabetic complications, our study investigated the association of Chemerin polymorphism rs17173608 with the risk of DN and evaluate its role in the severity of nephropathy. 100 apparently healthy (controls) and 100 diabetic nephropathy (cases) participants were recruited. Anthropometric and biochemical data were collected. Estimated GFR was calculated. Chemerin was estimated in serum by sandwich immunoassay. Genotyping for rs17173608 was performed in blood leukocyte DNA using TaqMan 5’alleleic discrimination assay. In the cases, genotype distributions were 60% (TT), 29% (TG), and 11% (GG) while in the controls, genotype distributions were 69% (TT), 22% (TG), and 9% (GG). Genotype and allele frequencies of the Chemerin SNP rs17173608 did not differ between the cases and controls. Logistic regression analysis showed a statistically significant protective association of TG genotype with risk of diabetic nephropathy. Chemerin and Insulin levels in cases were significantly higher than in the controls, but did not show any correlation with eGFR. The chemerin gene polymorphism rs17173608 was not associated with the risk of Diabetic Nephropathy. However, the TG genotype showed a protective association against disease severity. Significant elevations of serum chemerin and insulin are observed in diabetic nephropathy patients, and may need further studies to unravel the molecular links in nephropathy pathogenesis.