Serum TGF-β1 as a Biomarker for Type 2 Diabetic Nephropathy: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

BACKGROUND: Abnormal expression of serum TGF-β1 was found in patients with diabetic nephropathy. However, the association of TGF-β1 with the risk of diabetic nephropathy remains unknown. The present study was undertaken to investigate whether such an association exists. METHODS: We searched the Chinese VIP, Wangfang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar databases for relevant studies and extracted all eligible data. Stata12 software was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Nine reports met our criteria and were used for data extraction. There were 264 patients and 227 healthy controls from qualified reports in this meta-analysis. The results suggested that serum TGF-β1 levels were significantly up-regulated in patients with diabetic nephropathy; the instrumental variable was 3.94 (95% confidence interval 3.20–4.68, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Meta-analysis suggested that elevated serum TGF-β level in patients with diabetes is associated with a high risk of nephropathy. Further studies are required to validate these observations.