Evaluation of serum free fatty acids in chronic renal failure: evidence from a rare case with undetectable serum free fatty acids and population data

• Main Authors: Zhen-Xian Liu, Qian Hong, Ding-Hui Peng, Ying Yang, Wen-Li Yu, Hua Shui, Xin Zhou, Song-Mei Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-07-01
• Series: Lipids in Health and Disease
• Subjects: Chronic renal failure; Free fatty acids; Proteinuria; Glucose metabolism; Lipid metabolism
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12944-019-1093-5

Abstract Background Free fatty acid (FFA) accumulation in proximal tubules plays a fundamental role in the progress of kidney disease. Here, we reported a rare case with undetectable serum FFAs and further evaluated the changes of serum FFAs in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF). Methods We analyzed the clinical data of a rare case and 574 CRF patients. The mRNA expression of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), hepatic lipase (HL) and fatty acid synthase (FASN) were determined in the rare case and 30 age-matched healthy males with qPCR. Results This rare case had serious proteinuria, hyperglycemia, lipid disorders and bilateral renal glomerular filtration dysfunction. Compared with healthy males, this case showed a 1.49-fold increase of LPL expression (P < 0.01), a 3.38-fold reduction of HL expression (P < 0.001), and no significant change of FASN expression (P > 0.05). In total, 21.6% of CRF patients showed abnormal FFAs. Biochemical parameters such as blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (CREA) significantly differed among groups with low-, normal- or high-level-FFAs. Moreover, serum FFAs was found to be associated with BUN. FFAs decreased in the group with higher BUN (> 17.4 mmol/L) and in the group with lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (< 15 mL/min/1.73m2). Conclusions The proteinuria, HL low expression and renal function failure may contribute to the FFA reduction, which might imply that the renal function is severely damaged.