Relationship between serum adiopocyte fatty acid binding protein and atherosclerosis in chronic kidney disease

Objective To investigate the expression of serum adiopocyte fatty acid binding protein(A-FABP) in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and the role that A-FABP plays in CKD with atherosclerosis. Methods A total of 138 patients with CKD and 20 health control volunteers (HC) were involved in this study. The levels of serum A-FABP, free fatty acid (FFA), interleukin- 6 (IL-6), monocyte chemotactic protein 1(MCP-1) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). Inteima-media thickness of common carotid artery was measured by color doppler ultrasound.Results According to the progression of glomerular filtration rate(GFR), the patients with CKD were divided into three groups: group CKD1-2eGFR≥ 60 ml·min-1·(1.73 m2)-1], group CKD 3-460 ml·min-1·(1.73 m2)-1 > eGFR ≥ 15 ml·min-1·(1.73 m2)-1], group CKD5eGFR ＜ 15 ml·min-1·(1.73 m2)-1].The levels of serum A-FABP were relatively higher in CKD than that in HC group(P＜0.05), and that in the group CKD5 were the most highest (P＜0.01). The level of serum FFA in group CKD 1-2 was relatively higher than that in group HC (P＜0.05), and FFA had a rising trend with decreased eGFR. The level of serum A-FABP was positively correlated with the levels of serum FFA (r＝0.825, P＜0.01), and also positively correlated with IL-6 (r＝0.569, P＜0.01), MCP-1(r＝0.657, P＜0.01) in CKD by Pearson correlation analysis. The levels of A-FABP in 56 patients of CKD with vascular atherosclerosis were significantly higher than that in 82 patients without vascular atherosclerosis (P＜0.01). Conclusion Serum A-FABP maybe play an important role in the progression of vascular atherosclerosis in CKD.