Differences in proximal tubular solute clearance across common etiologies of chronic kidney disease.

backgroundLaboratory measures of glomerular function such as the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) contribute toward clinical evaluation of chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, diverse CKD etiologies have distinct pathological mechanisms that may differentially impact the kidney tubules. Little is known regarding how tubular function changes with varying kidney disease types.

methodsWe used targeted mass spectrometry to quantify paired serum and urine concentration of 11 solutes of proximal tubular secretion in 223 patients from an outpatient CKD cohort. We reviewed clinic notes to ascertain the primary CKD diagnosis and categorized these as vascular, diabetic, glomerular or tubulointerstitial. We used one-way analysis of variance to compare secretory solute clearance across diagnoses setting a false discovery threshold of ≤5% and used linear regression to compare differences after adjustments for estimated GFR, age, race, sex, body mass index and urine albumin excretion.

resultsAfter full adjustment, glomerular disease was associated with higher clearances of three tubular secretory solutes compared with vascular disease: 48% higher isovalerylglycine clearance [95% confidence interval (CI) 18-87%], 28% higher kynurenic acid clearance (95% CI 3-59%) and 33% higher tiglylglycine clearance (95% CI 7-67%). Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) was associated with 39% higher isovalerylglycine clearance compared with vascular disease (95% CI 13-72%).

conclusionGlomerular disorders and DKD are associated with higher net clearances of several secretory solutes compared with vascular causes of kidney disease. These findings suggest that different underlying etiologies of CKD may differentially impact proximal tubular secretory pathways.