Serum fetuin--a concentrations are inversely related to cytokine concentrations in patients with chronic renal failure.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: A close relationship exists between inflammation and vascular calcification. Although fetuin-A is known to be an inhibitor of calcification, studies correlating levels of this glycoprotein to markers of inflammation are limited. To understand these relationships, we investigated the relationship between serum fetuin-A and proinflammatory cytokine levels in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF).

METHODS

Thirty-two patients on haemodialysis (HD), 32 conservatively managed chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients and a control group of 25 subjects with normal renal function were enrolled in this study. Serum fetuin-A, IL-1beta, IL-6 and TNF-alpha levels were measured by ELISA. Correlations between serum fetuin-A and IL-1beta, IL-6 and TNF-alpha concentrations were investigated by the Spearman correlation test.

RESULTS

In 64 CRF patients (on HD and with CKD), serum fetuin-A was significantly and inversely related to IL-1beta (P<0.001), IL-6 (P=0.025) and TNF-alpha levels (P=0.007), respectively. The serum fetuin-A levels of the control subjects were not significantly correlated to levels of the inflammatory markers IL-1beta, IL-6 and TNF-alpha (P=0.551, 0.985 and 0.984, respectively).

CONCLUSION

The negative correlation between serum fetuin-A and cytokine concentrations in CRF patients supports the hypothesis of inflammation-dependent down-regulation of fetuin-A expression.