Significance of anti-glomerular basement membrane antibodies in type 2 diabetic patients

OBJECTIVE: Diabetic glomerulosclerosis is a common cause of proteinuria in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), however, primary glomerulonephritis can superimpose on it. The aim of this study is to evaluate the significance of anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibodies in type 2 DM.

METHODS: We choose 60 well known Saudi patients with type 2 DM diagnosed according to American Diabetes Association criteria attending the medical outpatient clinic at Al-Noor Specialist Hospital in Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between July 2004 and December 2004, after written consent and divided them into 3 groups according to the degree of albuminuria, either normal, micro albuminuric or with diabetic nephropathy. We choose 20 healthy subjects as the control. We checked anti-GBM serum level by indirect solid phase immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

RESULTS: There was significant increase in anti-GBM serum levels in diabetic patients compared with the control subjects, mainly in the normal and micro albuminuric patients groups, but not in patients with diabetic nephropathy.

CONCLUSION: Anti-GBM antibodies are a significant predictor of diabetic nephropathy especially in the early phases, however, we need further studies to document its clinical importance in such common, important diabetic complications.