The significance of the level of serum cystatin C at detecting the early stage of renal impairment of diabetes mellitus

Objective To study the correlation of the levels of serum cystatin C and 24-hour urinary albumine excretion(24hUAE) with the development of diabetic nephropathy in streptozotocin(STZ)-induced diabetic rats.Methods Sixteen female Wistar rats were used to induce diabetes by intraperitoneal injection of STZ(60 mg/kg).ELISA were used to examine the level of serum cystatin C after 4 and 8 weeks.The correlation between 24hUAE and cystatin C was analysed.Result The serum concentrations of cystatin C were significantly higher in diabetes group at 4 and 8 week(4.467±0.455 ng/ml,5.150±0.23 ng/ml) than in normal control(2.417±0.426 ng/ml,2.283±0.503 ng/ml,P0.01),and the level of cystatin C in diabetes group increased gradually(P0.01).Conclusion Cystatin C may be one of good indexes for detecting the early kidney dysfunction in diabetes.