College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Bryan, TX, USA.
Am J Nephrol. 2012;35(2):152-63. doi: 10.1159/000335579. Epub 2012 Jan 20.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health problem, and despite continued research in the field, there is still a need to identify both biomarkers of risk and progression, as well as potential therapeutic targets. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a family of statistical techniques that has been utilized in the fields of sociology and psychology for many years; however, its utilization in the biological sciences is relatively novel. SEM's ability to investigate complex relationships in an efficient, single model could be utilized to understand the progression of CKD, as well as to develop a predictive model to assess kidney status in the patient.
Fischer 344 rats were fed either an ad libitum diet or a calorically restricted diet, and a time-course study of kidney structure and function was performed. EQS, a SEM software package, was utilized to generate five CKD models of the Fisher 344 rat and identify relationships between measured variables and estimates of kidney damage and kidney function.
All models identified strong relationships between a biomarker for CKD, kidney injury molecule-1 (Kim-1) and kidney damage, in the Fischer 344 rat CKD model. Models also indicate a strong relationship between age and renal damage and dysfunction.
SEM can be used to model CKD and could be useful to examine biomarkers in CKD patients.
慢性肾病（CKD）是一个主要的公共卫生问题，尽管该领域的研究一直在继续，但仍需要识别风险和进展的生物标志物，以及潜在的治疗靶点。结构方程模型（SEM）是一组统计技术，多年来已在社会学和心理学领域得到应用；然而，它在生物科学中的应用相对较新。SEM 能够在一个高效、单一的模型中研究复杂的关系，这可以用来理解 CKD 的进展，并开发一个预测模型来评估患者的肾脏状况。
费希尔 344 大鼠分别喂食自由饮食或热量限制饮食，并进行了肾脏结构和功能的时间过程研究。EQS，一种 SEM 软件包，用于生成费希尔 344 大鼠的五个 CKD 模型，并确定测量变量与估计的肾脏损伤和肾功能之间的关系。
所有模型都确定了 CKD 的生物标志物，即肾损伤分子-1（Kim-1）与肾脏损伤之间的强关系，在 Fischer 344 大鼠 CKD 模型中。模型还表明年龄与肾脏损伤和功能障碍之间存在很强的关系。
SEM 可用于 CKD 模型的构建，对于检查 CKD 患者的生物标志物可能很有用。
