Background: Post transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) has direct impact of patients’ immune system. Angiopoietin and angiopoietin like are intrinsic mediators induced by immune cells.
Objectives: To determine the relationship between circulating angiopoietin-1 and 2 (ANG-1, 2) and angiopoietin like (ANGPTL 3-8) in kidney transplant patients who develop PTDM vs. those patients who do not develop diabetes (control).
Methods: All patients enrolled in this study from Diabetes Education Department of Dasman Diabetes Institute and outpatient clinics of the Hamad Al Essa Organ Transplant Centre of Kuwait between May 2015 and December 2016. The study included 155 PTDM and 154 control, age- and sex-matched. We determined plasma ANG 1 ,2 and ANGPTL 3-8 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We determined the correlation between plasma ANG 1 and 2 and ANGPTL3-8 levels in the 2 groups.
Results: In our cohorts, most of patients (56%) were Kuwaiti and the two groups were comparable regarding their original kidney disease, dialysis type, donor type and the type of both induction and maintenance immunosuppression (P > 0.05). Also, pre-transplant co-morbidities were comparable in both groups (P > 0.05). We found significantly higher plasma ANG-1, ANGPTNL 6, 7, 8 levels in PTDM group compared to control group (P < 0.001) but plasma ANG 2, and ANGPTNL 3, 4 were comparable in the two groups (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Plasma ANG 1, ANGPTNL6, 7, 8 levels may correlate with disease severity, chronicity in transplant patients who develop PTDM, and serve as a potential biomarker of the disease severity.