Urinary Connective Tissue Growth Factor Excretion in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes and Nephropathy

Abstract

OBJECTIVE—Excretion of growth factors in the urine has been implicated in the pathogenesis of tubulointerstitial disease that characterizes proteinuric renal disease. In this cross-sectional study, we sought to examine the urinary excretion of the profibrotic cytokine connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in type 1 diabetic patients with incipient and overt diabetic nephropathy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We recruited 31 subjects with type 1 diabetes from a hospital diabetes outpatient clinic. Of these, 10 subjects were normoalbuminuric, 8 were microalbuminuric and not receiving ACE inhibitor treatment, and 13 were macroalbuminuric, 8 of whom were receiving ACE inhibitor tre..