Effect of pitavastatin on urinary liver-type fatty-acid-binding protein in patients with nondiabetic mild chronic kidney disease.
OBJECTIVE
Urinary liver-type fatty-acid-binding protein (L-FABP) is a useful clinical marker in the monitoring of chronic kidney disease (CKD) associated with tubulointerstitial damage. Statins have been shown to be effective in the treatment of renal disease. The aim of the present study was to determine whether pitavastatin, a newly developed statin, modulates the urinary L-FABP levels in normolipidemic patients with CKD.


METHODS
Thirty normolipidemic mild CKD patients (18 males and 12 females, mean age 40 years, mean serum creatinine level 1.0 mg/dl) were randomly assigned to two groups: (1) pitavastatin (1 mg/day, n = 15) and (2) placebo (n = 15). Urinary protein and urinary L-FABP levels were measured before the initiation of treatment and 3 and 6 months thereafter. Twenty age-matched healthy subjects were also studied as controls.


RESULTS
Before treatment, the urinary L-FABP levels in 30 CKD patients (84.0 +/- 68.5 microg/g creatinine) were significantly higher than those of healthy subjects (6.4 +/- 4.2 mug/g creatinine; p < 0.001). Pitavastatin slightly reduced serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, but this was not statistically significant. However, pitavastatin reduced the urinary protein excretion from 1.8 to 1.0 g/day (p < 0.01), while the urinary L-FABP levels fell from 88.5 +/- 70.5 to 28.0 +/- 16.5 mug/g creatinine (p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The present data suggest that pitavastatin ameliorates tubulointerstitial damage in CKD patients independent of the lipid-lowering effect.
Department of Internal Medicine, Shinmatsudo Central General Hospital, Chiba, Japan.
Tsukasa
T
Nakamura
Takeshi
T
Sugaya
Yasuhiro
Y
Kawagoe
Tsukasa
T
Suzuki
Teruo
T
Inoue
Koichi
K
Node
D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D002908:Chronic Disease; D050556:Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins / Q000652:urine*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000652:urine*; D008297:Male; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000188:drug therapy; D011804:Quinolines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood
D015415:Biomarkers; D050556:Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors; D011804:Quinolines; D014280:Triglycerides; D002784:Cholesterol; C108475:pitavastatin