Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Nov 16;23(22):14139.
doi: 10.3390/ijms232214139.

Serum Biomarkers of Renal Fibrosis: A Systematic Review

Alice Barinotti  1   2 , Massimo Radin  1   2 , Irene Cecchi  1   2 , Silvia Grazietta Foddai  1   2 , Elena Rubini  1   2 , Dario Roccatello  1   2 , Savino Sciascia  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Serum Biomarkers of Renal Fibrosis: A Systematic Review

Alice Barinotti et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a widely diffuse pathological condition which deeply impacts upon an affected patient's quality of life and its worldwide rate is predicted to further rise. The main biological mechanism underlying CKD is renal fibrosis, a non-reversible process representing, for the affected system, a point of no return of tissue damage and dysfunction, deeply reducing the possible therapeutic strategies at the disposal of physicians. The best tool clinicians can use to address the extent of renal fibrosis at any level (glomeruli, tubule-interstitium, vasculature) is kidney biopsy that, despite its overall safety, remains an invasive procedure showing some shortcomings. Thus, the identification of novel non-invasive renal fibrosis biomarkers would be of fundamental importance. Here, when systematically reviewing the available evidence on serological biomarkers associated with renal fibrosis evaluated in patients suffering from CKD in the last five years, we found that despite the presence of several promising biomarkers, the level of observed evidence is still very scattered. Probably, the use of multiple measures capable of addressing different aspects involved in this condition would be the most suitable way to capture the high complexity characterizing the renal fibrotic process, having consequently a great impact on clinical practice by maximizing prevention, diagnosis, and management.

Keywords: biomarkers; chronic kidney disease; renal fibrosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Literature search strategy and studies selection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Jha V., Garcia-Garcia G., Iseki K., Li Z., Naicker S., Plattner B., Saran R., Wang A.Y.-M., Yang C.-W. Chronic kidney disease: Global dimension and perspectives. Lancet. 2013;382:260–272. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60687-X. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Levey A.S., Atkins R., Coresh J., Cohen E.P., Collins A.J., Eckardt K.U., Nahas M.E., Jaber B.L., Jadoul M., Levin A., et al. Chronic kidney disease as a global public health problem: Approaches and initiatives—A position statement from Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes. Kidney Int. 2007;72:247–259. doi: 10.1038/sj.ki.5002343. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Charles C., Ferris A.H. Chronic Kidney Disease. Prim. Care. 2020;47:585–595. doi: 10.1016/j.pop.2020.08.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wang Y.N., Ma S.X., Chen Y.Y., Chen L., Liu B.L., Liu Q.Q., Zhao Y.Y. Chronic kidney disease: Biomarker diagnosis to therapeutic targets. Clin. Chim. Acta. 2019;499:54–63. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2019.08.030. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wang V., Vilme H., Maciejewski M.L., Boulware L.E. The Economic Burden of Chronic Kidney Disease and End-Stage Renal Disease. Semin Nephrol. 2016;36:319–330. doi: 10.1016/j.semnephrol.2016.05.008. - DOI - PubMed

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.