The relationship of serum elabela level and hypertensive nephropathy in patients with diagnosis of hypertension

Hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or more and/or a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or more. Hypertension is a major contributor to all-cause mortality. Also, people with hypertension are predisposed to kidney failure, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, and other medical conditions. It is estimated that approximately 1.4 billion adults worldwide (20% of women and 25% of men over 18 years old) have hypertension. Hypertension is the second most common cause of end-stage renal failure. End-stage renal failure developed due to hypertensive nephropathy in 30% of all patients receiving renal replacement therapy. Elabela, also known as Toddler or Apela, is a 54 amino acid peptide containing a secretory signal in mature form containing 32 amino acids. Elabela is an endogenous ligand of the apelin receptor (APJ), a G protein-coupled receptor expressed in many tissues, including kidney. It acts during embryogenesis and circulates in the blood as a secreted hormonal peptide in adults. The study group consisted of individuals between the ages of 30-75. The patients were divided into 2 groups as hypertensive patients with and without hypertensive nephropathy. The study group consisted of 87 patients, 37 of whom were diagnosed with hypertension and had hypertensive nephropathy, and 50 people who had hypertension but did not have hypertensive nephropathy. The control group is; It was formed from 50 healthy individuals of similar age and gender, who were non-hypertensive, did not have any comorbidity or lipid metabolism disorder. Patient group: It was formed based on the data obtained from the retrospective file scanning of the patients who applied to the outpatient clinic and clinic of Fırat University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Internal Medicine. When the plasma Elabela levels were compared between the three groups, a statistically significant difference was found (p<0.001). It was seen that this difference was due to the difference between all groups. In conclusion, in our study, it was determined that the plasma level of Elabela decreased in hypertension, independent of nephropathy. Although a few studies have shown that the level of Elabela decreases in the case of nephropathy, we can say that this decrease is not specific to nephropathy and may be due to other accompanying chronic diseases. Keywords: Hypertension, hypertensive nephropathy, Elabela