The Association Between Leucine and Diabetic Nephropathy (DN) in Different Gender: A Cross-Sectional Study in Chinese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to evaluate how leucine are associated with diabetic nephropathy (DN) in type 2 diabetes(T2D) patients and the gender difference of this association. Methods: We retrieved 1,032 consecutive patients with T2D from the same tertiary care center and extracted clinical information from electronic medical record. Plasma leucine was measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) was conducted to examine potential non-linear relationship between leucine with DN and stratified leucine into categories. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI). Additive interaction was used to estimate the interaction effect between leucine and gender for DN. Results: The results showed a negative linear correlation between leucine and DN. After stratifying all patients by gender, this relationship only remained significant in women (OR:0.57, CI:0.41-0.79), and the relationship was still significant in additive interaction analysis. Conclusion: In conclusion, diabetes patients with high levels of leucine have a lower risk of developing diabetic nephropathy only in female.