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Background/Aims: Renal involvement is one of the most common extra-articular complications caused by ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Most studies have focused on the incidence rate, clinical manifestation and pathology, while risk factors have hardly been investigated. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the risk factors of renal involvement in patients with AS. Methods: Clinical and biochemical data of 926 AS patients were collected. Based on the manifestations of renal involvement, patients were divided into three groups and the differences in clinical and biochemical characteristics were compared. A group with non-renal involvement served as a control. Multivariable logistic regression was used for analyzing risk factors of renal involvement in AS. Results: Of the 926 AS patients, 201 patients suffered from renal involvement. Moreover, female AS patients faced a higher risk of hematuria compared to male patients. As indicated by the data obtained from multivariate logistic regression analysis, gender, uric acid (UA), immunoglobulin A (IgA), and serum albumin (ALB) were found to be risk factors of renal involvement in AS. An increase in UA or IgA levels, or a decrease in ALB level can increase the risk of renal involvement with multiple manifestations (more than one manifestation of renal damage). According to our findings, no definite variable was identified as a risk factor of proteinuria in AS patients. Conclusion: In AS patients, UA, IgA, and ALB levels can indicate the risk of renal involvement in AS patient and need to be paid special attention. Furthermore, women are subjected to a higher risk of hematuria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Type I diabetes is a global public health concern that affects young people of reproductive age and can damage oocytes, reducing their maturation rate and blocking embryonic development. Understanding the effects of type I diabetes on oocytes is important to facilitate the maintenance of reproductive capacity in female diabetic patients. Methods: To analyze the effects of type I diabetes on mammalian oocytes, protein profile changes in mice with streptozotocin-induced type I diabetes were investigated using proteomic tools; nondiabetic mouse oocytes were used as controls. Immunofluorescence analysis for the spindle and mitochondria of oocytes. Results: We found that type I diabetes severely disturbed the metabolic processes of mouse oocytes. We also observed significant changes in levels of histone H1, H2A/B, and H3 variants in diabetic oocytes (fold change: > 0.4 or < -0.4), with the potential to block activation of the zygotic genome and affect early embryo development. Furthermore, diabetic oocytes exhibited higher abnormal spindle formation and spatial remodeling of mitochondria than observed in the controls. Conclusion: Our results indicate that type I diabetes disrupts metabolic processes, spindle formation, mitochondria distribution and modulates epigenetic code in oocytes. Such effects could have a major impact on the reproductive dynamics of female patients with type I diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]