Expression and Significance of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 in the Serum of Patients with Diabetes Kidney Disease.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the expression levels and significance of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) in patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD).

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

236 patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) who were admitted to Hebei Provincial People's Hospital from October 2023 to May 2025 were enrolled in this study. According to the urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR), they were divided into normal albuminuria group (D1), microalbuminuria group (D2) and macroalbuminuria group (D3). 93 healthy people undergoing routine examination during the same period served as normal control (NC). Collect clinical data, use Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to detect serum PRMT1. Detection of glucose and lipid metabolism and renal function indicators were used to evaluate intergroup differences and explore the relationship between PRMT1 and DKD.

RESULTS

Serum PRMT1 level rose gradually from NC group to D1, D2 and D3 groups (P<0.05), in T2DM patients, there was a significant positive association between PRMT1 expression and UACR (P < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that elevated PRMT1 expression was independently associated with both early and clinical DKD, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated PRMT1 had discriminative ability for DKD.

CONCLUSION

Serum PRMT1 concentrations were significantly elevated in patients with DKD compared with those with type 2 diabetes without nephropathy and healthy individuals, and levels increased with advancing disease severity, which implies that PRMT1 could be a valuable diagnostic marker for DKD.