Evaluation of serum galectin-3 concentrations in healthy cats and in cats with ureteral obstruction

Serum galectin-3 (sGal-3) is a protein present in renal tubules and increases in experimental rodent models of acute kidney injury. The aim of this study was to compare sGal-3 concentrations in healthy cats and cats with ureteral obstruction (UO).

This was a retrospective study. Banked serum was used for sGal-3 evaluations in 15 healthy control cats and 22 cats with UO. For the control cats, creatinine and symmetric dimethylarginine were within reference intervals and ultrasound showed minimal to no kidney changes. A feline-specific sGal-3 ELISA was used to determine sGal-3 concentrations. Samples were analyzed in duplicate, and results were included if the coefficient of variation between samples was <20%. Shapiro-Wilk testing was used to evaluate for normality and parametric statistics were performed. P <0.05 was considered significant.

Mean (±SD) sGal-3 was lower in healthy cats (274.3 ± 146.5 pg/ml) than in cats with UO (707.7 ± 223.3 pg/ml; P <0.0001). There was no difference in sGal-3 concentrations between cats with unilateral or bilateral UO (P = 0.24) and no correlation between sGal-3 and creatinine, body weight or age. With a cutoff of 500 pg/ml, sGal-3 had a sensitivity of 86% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.67-0.95) and specificity of 100% (95% CI 0.79-1.00) for differentiating cats with UO from healthy cats.

An early diagnosis of UO is critical, given its associated morbidity and mortality. Given the differences in sGal-3 concentrations in healthy cats and those with UO in this study, sGal-3 shows potential for an early UO diagnosis; however, further research is needed.