ArticleFrontiers in endocrinology2026
Serum adropin levels and their association with sarcopenia in patients with diabetic nephropathy: a cross-sectional study.
Article in Frontiers in endocrinology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Adropin, an endogenous peptide hormone with established roles in energy homeostasis and endothelial function, has been implicated in metabolic disease and chronic kidney disease. However, its relationship with sarcopenia in diabetic nephropathy (DN), an increasingly recognised complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), remains poorly characterised. We evaluated serum adropin in T2DM patients with and without DN compared with a younger healthy control group (with the age difference acknowledged as a major confounder) and assessed whether adropin levels are associated with sarcopenia indices and total antioxidant status (TAS). Methods: This cross-sectional study included 83 participants: 59 patients with T2DM (37 with DN, 21 without DN (1 with missing UACR)) and 24 healthy controls. Sarcopenia evaluation, including body composition by bioelectrical impedance analysis and hand-grip strength using a hand dynamometer, was completed in 31 diabetic patients. Sarcopenia was operationally defined by reduced hand-grip strength according to EWGSOP2 thresholds (<27 kg for men, <16 kg for women). Serum adropin was measured by ELISA; TAS and TOS were measured by the Erel colorimetric method. Results: Serum adropin was significantly lower in T2DM patients than in controls (197.4 ± 129.1 vs 352.3 ± 240.7 pg/mL, p = 0.011). Within the diabetic cohort, adropin did not differ between DN and non-DN patients (201.4 ± 119.7 vs 193.8 ± 139.1 pg/mL, p = 0.370; ROC AUC 0.574). In the sarcopenia subgroup (n = 31), hand-grip strength was significantly lower in DN than non-DN patients (1st measurement: 18.7 ± 4.7 vs 26.5 ± 9.5 kg, p = 0.012; 3rd measurement: 17.8 ± 4.8 vs 25.1 ± 9.1 kg, p = 0.035), while muscle mass and walking speed did not differ. Patients meeting EWGSOP2 grip criteria for low strength showed numerically lower adropin than non-sarcopenic patients (169.5 ± 73.6 vs 238.9 ± 181.7 pg/mL, p = 0.358). Adropin correlated strongly with TAS (ρ = 0.82, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Serum adropin is markedly reduced in T2DM but does not discriminate DN from non-DN patients in this cohort. Reduced hand-grip strength is the most consistent sarcopenia-related abnormality in DN patients, supporting a functional rather than purely anthropometric muscle deficit. The strong positive correlation between adropin and TAS suggests that adropin tracks the broader oxidative-metabolic milieu of T2DM rather than functioning as an independent clinical biomarker for DN or sarcopenia; longitudinal validation is required before any biomarker role can be considered.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.