• Assessment of the relationship between CD34 and CD133 serum levels and nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes
  • Vahid Pouresmaeil,1,* Mostafa Maktoof,2 Masoud Homayouni Tabrizi,3
    1. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran.
    2. Department of Biology, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran.
    3. Department of Biology, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran.


  • Introduction: Diabetic nephropathy is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus. Diabetic nephropathy is a metabolic disorder caused by chronic hyperglycemia, which causes a wide range of dysfunction in kidney cells and ultimately leads to the complete loss of kidney function Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum levels of CD34 and CD133 as markers of endothelial cells and progenitors with the severity of nephropathy in type 2 diabetic patients.
  • Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was performed on 37 patients with type 2 diabetes with nephropathy (DPN) and 30 patients with diabetes without nephropathy referred to Mashhad hospitals in 2020. Lipid profile, Creatinine, Uric acid, Insulin, Insulin resistance, Blood pressure registered and serum levels of CD34 and CD133 were assessed by ELISA method in all patients. Insulin resistance was measured using the HOMA-IR formula. The Cockcroft-Gault formula used to estimate Glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The software used in this study is SPSS v.24, and the significance level of the tests is considered less than 5%.
  • Results: Thirty seven diabetic patients with nephropathy (Case group) with a mean age of 58/76 ± 11/72 years including 54/1% of women, and thirty patients with diabetes without nephropathy (Control group) with a mean age of 53/90 ± 10/38 years including 53/3% of women were studied. BMI, diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, HbA1C, LDL, creatinine, uric acid, insulin, eGFR, CD34 and CD133 in DPN patients were significantly different from the control group (P<0.05); While age, sex, systolic pressure, cholesterol, HDL, and triglyceride were not significantly different between the two groups (P>0.05). In the DPN group, CD34 has a significant direct relationship with CD133 (P<0.05). The severity of nephropathy was significantly associated with decreased levels of CD34 and CD133.
  • Conclusion: The results of this study show that DPN can directly reduce the CD34 and CD133 markers in the body and increase the rate of secondary complications in these patients, so these two markers can be used to control or even therapeutic purposes in DPN patients.
  • Keywords: Type 2 diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, CD34, CD133