title: Growth hormone and IGF-I in diabetic children with and without microalbuminuria.
abstract: In order to evaluate the relationship between urinary GH, urinary IGF-I and plasma IGF-I levels and presence of incipient diabetic nephropathy in paediatric age, we studied fifty (25 male and 25 female) prepubertal patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The patients were subdivided into two groups according to the presence of persistent microalbuminuria defined as albumin excretion rate (AER) >20 microg/min in at least 5 urine collections in the 6 months prior to the beginning of the study: Group A: 18 patients with microalbuminuria; Group B: 32 patients without microalbuminuria. A group of 20 healthy subjects, sex-, age- and pubertal stage-matched, served as control. No difference was observed between the urinary output of IGF-I and GH and plasma IGF-I values between normoalbuminuric and control subjects (normoalbuminuric vs controls: urinary GH: mean+/-SD 7.9+/-0.7 ng/day vs 8.1+/-0.6; urinary IGF-I: 178.3+/-19.7 ng/day vs 175.5+/-20.3; plasma IGF-I: 203.9+/-31.2 ng/ml vs 199.4+/-43.2), but a significant difference was observed between the urinary output of IGF-I and GH and plasma IGF-I levels between microalbuminuric patients and normoalbuminuric and controls (microalbuminuric subjects: urinary GH: 13.1+/-1.4 p<0.01; urinary IGF-I: 451.3+/-45.9 p<0.001; plasma IGF-I: 326.5+/-63.2 p<0.01). Moreover, plasma IGF-I, urinary GH and urinary IGF-I were not significantly associated with microalbuminuria, while plasma IGF-I levels were positively related to glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (p<0.05). In conclusion, our study demonstrates that microalbuminuric patients have higher levels of urinary IGF-I, urinary GH, plasma IGF-I than normoalbuminuric diabetic subjects. These data support the hypothesis that IGF-I can have a role in the changes of renal function observed in patients with persistent microalbuminuria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verrotti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cieri
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Petitti
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morgese
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chiarelli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000419:Albuminuria / Q000378:metabolism*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine*; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate; D019382:Human Growth Hormone / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000652:urine; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D019382:Human Growth Hormone; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I