Association of Urinary EGF with Kidney Outcomes and Effects of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibition

Lower urinary EGF levels, normalized to urinary creatinine, reflected impaired tubular health and were associated with higher kidney risk across CKD. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors attenuated the decline in urinary EGF-creatinine ratio observed with placebo, supporting a role in maintaining tubular health. Early increases in urinary EGF-creatinine ratio were linked to lower kidney risk, adding prognostic value beyond albuminuria.

Urinary EGF is a marker of tubular repair capacity. Lower urinary EGF-creatinine ratio (uEGF/Cr) levels associate with kidney disease progression in patients with type 2 diabetes at early stages of CKD. In these patients, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) are associated with increased tubular EGF expression. In this study, we aimed to extend these findings to a broad CKD population with and without type 2 diabetes at various stages of CKD.

We measured EGF in stored urine samples at baseline and year 1 in participants from the Canagliflozin Cardiovascular Assessment Study (CANVAS), Canagliflozin and Renal Events in Diabetes with Established Nephropathy Clinical Evaluation (CREDENCE), and Dapagliflozin and Prevention of Adverse Outcomes in CKD (DAPA-CKD) clinical trials. Associations of baseline and longitudinal uEGF/Cr with the composite kidney outcome (sustained ≥40% eGFR decline, kidney failure, or kidney-related death) were assessed using multivariable Cox regression, and associations with annual eGFR decline using a two-slope linear mixed-effects model. Treatment effects of SGLT2i on uEGF/Cr over time were analyzed with analysis of covariance.

In participants with type 2 diabetes from the CANVAS and CREDENCE trials ( N =5978), higher baseline uEGF/Cr was associated with a lower risk of the composite kidney outcome (hazard ratio per two-fold higher uEGF/Cr, 0.87 [95% confidence interval, 0.80 to 0.94]). SGLT2i attenuated the decline in uEGF/Cr over 1 year compared with placebo by 6.7% (95% confidence interval, 2.5 to 10.8). Increases in uEGF/Cr from baseline to year 1 were independently associated with a lower risk of the kidney outcome, even after accounting for 1-year changes in albuminuria, eGFR, and other clinical variables. Replication analyses showed similar results in the DAPA-CKD trial ( N =2450), with consistent findings in participants with and without diabetes.

These results extend previous findings, supporting uEGF/Cr as a robust, independent biomarker of tubular health and kidney risk across diverse CKD populations. SGLT2i attenuated uEGF/Cr decline, and early changes in uEGF/Cr provided prognostic information beyond albuminuria.