Abstract
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a life-threatening condition originated from renal dysfunction. So far we do not have perfect remedies and therefore prevention of progression draw high interests from both researchers and clinicians. There are a lot of risk factors for its development and its prognosis, among them, hypertension and diabetes are the most common risks. We have been using biomarkers for diabetes and hypertension such as HbA1c, diurnal changes of blood pressure, morphological changes in blood vessels and cardiac functions. Recent advances in chemical analysis proposed several biomarkers from blood and urine samples, such as microalbuminuria, L-FABP and others. Animal and cell experiments also suggest potential biomarkers, however, they are not necessarily applicable in human. Besides those chemical markers, studies on genetic or epigenetic factors such as microRNA have been reported. In addition to those upcoming techniques, we learned a lot from classical cellular morphological examination of urinary sediments.
In the current review, we focus on podocyte and round cell in the urinary sediment and epigenetic markers in the urine as novel biomarkers for CKD and its risk factors those are hypertension and diabetes.