Proteomic characterization of obesity-related nephropathy
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Whole Kidney, Medulla, and Cortical Tubules in Diabetic Pathogenesis of Kidney Injury in Mice
Published on: May 2, 2025
Ralph Wendt1, Tianlin He2, Agnieszka Latosinska2
1Department of Nephrology and Kuratorium for Dialysis and Transplantation Renal Unit, Hospital St Georg, Leipzig, Germany.
Background:
Nephropathy related to obesity lacks a pathophysiological understanding and definite diagnostic pathways by biomarkers.
Methods:
In this study we investigated the association between urinary peptides and body mass index (BMI) and renal function in proteome data sets from 4015 individuals.
Results:
A total of 365 urinary peptides were identified to be significantly associated with BMI. The majority of these peptides were collagen fragments. In addition, most of the peptides also demonstrated a significant concordant association with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the investigated cohort, with the presence of diabetes exhibiting no significant association. A new classifier was developed, based on 150 urinary peptides, that enabled the distinction of non-obese subjects with preserved kidney function from obese, non-diabetic subjects with eGFR >45 mL/min/1.73 m2 in an independent cohort, with an area under the curve of 0.93.
Conclusions:
On a molecular level, the data strongly suggest a link between obesity and fibrosis, which may be a major cause of obesity-related nephropathy.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Pharmacokinetics in Obese Patients: Drug Metabolism and Excretion
Nephrotic Syndrome I : Introduction
Nephrotic Syndrome II : Assessment and Medical Management
Pharmacokinetics in Obese Patients: Drug Absorption and Distribution
Proteomics
Proteomics is the study of proteomes' function. It involves the large-scale systematic study of the proteome to denote the protein complement expressed by a genome. Scientist Mark Wilkins coined the term...
Obesity

