Urinary netrin-1 concentration in healthy full-term newborns

Monitoring of renal function in acute kidney injury in the pediatric population is complicated by the lack of age-related reference values of new biomarkers. Urinary netrin-1 is a new marker to demonstrate early kidney damage. Netrin-1 has a molecular mass of 72 kDa. It is therefore unlikely that it is filtered by the glomerulus under normal conditions. However, netrin-1 is highly induced after acute and chronic kidney injury and excreted in urine in humans. The aim of the study was to determine the normal concentrations of urinary netrin-1 in healthy full-term newborns.

The study included 88 healthy full-term neonates (51 boys and 37 girls) born from normal, uncomplicated pregnancies. The concentration of netrin-1 was determined in urine obtained on the first or second day of life with a commercially available ELISA kit.

The urinary concentration of netrin-1 in newborns was independent of gender and time of urine collection. We found a negative correlation between both the urinary netrin-1 concentration and urinary netrin-1 concentration after normalization for urinary creatinine and the birth weight.

This is the first study showing the urinary netrin-1 concentration in healthy full-term newborns. Future investigation is needed to confirm its potential role as a marker of kidney function in this age group.