Early biomarkers for acute kidney injury

Abstract

Acute kidney injury (AKI) represents a common and devastating problem in clinical medicine. The lack of early biomarkers for AKI has led to a delay in initiating potentially effective therapies.Identification of novel biomarkers for AKI has progressed to the clinical phase of the biomarker discovery process. The most promising AKI biomarkers include neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, IL-18, kidney injury molecule-1 and liver-type fatty acid binding protein. In this article, we review the study of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin,IL-18, kidney injury molecule-1 and liver-type fatty acid binding protein in recent years,in order to provide the theory basis for the clinical application of the early biomarkers for AKI. Key words: Acute kidney injury;  Acute renal failure;  Biomarker;  IL-18;  Kidney injury molecule-1; Liver-type fatty acid binding protein;  Nephrotoxicity;  Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin