title: Changes of urinary angiotensinogen concentration and its association with urinary proteins in diabetic rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  It had been reported that angiotensinogen might be a marker for activation of renin-angiotensin system, which was associated with the development of diabetic nephropathy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional roles of AGT in DN in vitro.
  
  
  METHODS
  Diabetic rat models were built by single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin. The diabetic rats were divided into three groups, two of the three groups were treated with different doses of losartan, the other diabetic group was as control and normal rats acted as healthy control. In a 12-week investigation, we detected the changes of AGT in all rats' blood and urine and the association between AGT concentration and RAS activation and urinary proteins were analyzed in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The serum AGT of rats had no significant differences (P>0.05 for all). The urinary AGT of the diabetic rats was significantly different from the control group, moreover, the urinary AGT of the diabetic rats under different treatments was also obviously different (P<0.05 for all). Besides, the results of immunohistochemical assay indicated that AGT expression level was correlated with renal tissues damage. The level of AGT was positively associated with urinary protein (r=0.493, P<0.01) and negatively correlated with CCr (r=-0.474, P=0.007) and the dose of ARB (r=-0.575, P=0.001). Moreover, the dose of ARB was independently associated with urinary AGT (B=-2.963, P=0.024) in diabetic rats.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Urinary AGT may be a marker for the activation of local RAS in kidney and independently associated with ARB.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Medical Center, Tsinghua University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, The No. 3 Hospital of Peking University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, The No. 3 Hospital of Peking University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lata
authors.affiliation: The People's Hospital of Peking University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yaoxian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, The No. 3 Hospital of Peking University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Danxia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, The No. 3 Hospital of Peking University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000808:Angiotensinogen / Q000652:urine*; D000818:Animals; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000150:complications* / Q000652:urine*; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000473:pathology / Q000652:urine; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000209:etiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D000808:Angiotensinogen
keywords: AGT; RAS; diabetic nephropathy; diabetic rat