Gestational age, sex, and time affect urine biomarker concentrations in extremely low gestational age neonates

BACKGROUND: Our understanding of the normative concentrations of urine biomarkers in premature neonates is limited. METHODS: We evaluated urine from 750 extremely low gestational age neonates (ELGANs) without severe acute kidney injury (AKI) to determine how gestational age (GA) affects 10 different urine biomarkers at birth and over the first 30 postnatal days. Then we investigated if the urine biomarkers changed over time at 27, 30, and 34 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA). Next, we evaluated the impact of sex on urine biomarker concentrations at birth and over time. Finally, we evaluated if urine biomarkers were impacted by treatment with erythropoietin (Epo). RESULTS: We found that all 10 biomarker concentrations differ at birth by GA and that some urine biomarker concentrations increase while others decrease over time. At 27 weeks PMA, 7/10 urine biomarkers differed by GA. By 30 weeks PMA, 5/10 differed and by 34 weeks PMA only osteopontin differed by GA. About half of the biomarker concentrations differed by sex, and 4/10 showed different rates of change over time between males vs. females. We found no differences in urine biomarkers by treatment group. CONCLUSIONS: The temporal, GA and sex differences need to be considered in urine AKI biomarker analyses.