Renal kallikrein excretion and epigenetics in human acute kidney injury: Expression, mechanisms and consequences

BMC Nephrology

Table 2 Mechanistic studies: Characteristics of the AKI study subjects versus healthy controls

Characteristics	Established AKI patients (n = 20)	Healthy controls (n = 38)	P value*
Age, years	48.8 ± 3.5	46.3 ± 1.5	0.52
Sex (male/female), n	15/5	30/8	1
Ethnicity, n			0.6
White	11	20
Black	3	6
Hispanic	5	6
Other	1	6
Weight, kg	91.2 ± 6.2	93.9 ± 3.7	0.293
BMI, kg/m ²	31.1 ± 2.2	27.8 ± 1	0.177
Laboratory findings at enrollment
sCr, mg/dl	2.7 ± 0.47	0.9 ± 0.04	0.0007
eGFR, ml/min	44.4 ± 7.5	97.5 ± 3.6	< 0.0001
uNa⁺/uCr, mEq/gm	127.6 ± 22.5	125.4 ± 9.4	0.347
uCr/sCr, ratio	42.4 ± 7.2	119.6 ± 11.4	< 0.0001
FeNa⁺, %	1.7 ± 0.4	0.8 ± 0.1	0.05
Vital signs at enrollment
Systolic BP, mmHg	119.8 ± 4.4	131.4 ± 1.7	0.02
Diastolic BP, mmHg	70.7 ± 3.4	74.7 ± 1.5	0.3
Heart rate, beats/min	89.3 ± 3.6	68.0 ± 1.6	< 0.0001
Contributing causes to AKI, n (with urine KLK1 activity excretion, U/gm creatinine, mean ± SEM)			0.83
Ischemia	7 (6.0 ± 3.7)	-	-
Nephrotoxins	4 (7.2 ± 3.9)	-	-
Septic	1 (4.6)	-	-
Multifactorial causes/other	8 (7.6 ± 2.9)	-	-

AKI = acute kidney injury, n = number of study subjects, BMI = body mass index, s = serum, u = urine, Cr = creatinine, FeNa⁺ = fractional excretion of sodium, SBP = systolic blood pressure, DBP = diastolic blood pressure, HR = heart rate, bpm = beats per minute, ICU = intensive care unit. *P values were calculated with Fisher's exact test for categorical variables, and ANOVA (log-transformed, adjusted for covariates: age, sex) for continuous variables. Plus-minus values are mean ± one SEM. Bold: p ≤ 0.05.