Abstract: Objective To analyze the correlation between serum Asprosin levels and elderlytype 2 diabetic nephropathy (DN) to provide clues for the search of new early indicators of DN inclinical practice. Methods A total of 183 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) admittedto our hospital from August 2021 to March 2022 were included for this study. According to whether the patients have DN or not, the patients were divided into 2 groups: the T2DM group alone (85 cases) and the combined DN group (98 cases). Another 50 healthy patients were selected for the control group. The serum Asposin levels in each group was detected and the diagnostic efficacy of Asposin in early DN was analyzed. Results Asprosin levels were significantly higher in the T2DMgroup [ (1. 64 ± 0. 41) ng / mL] and the combined DN group [ (2. 45 ± 0. 52) ng / mL] whencompared with that in the control group [ (1. 15 ± 0. 23 ng / mL], and Asprosin level in the combined DN group was higher than that in the T2DM group (P < 0. 05). Asprosin level was positively correlated with the values of BUN, Cr, UA, HbA1c, FINS, HOMA-IR, UAER ( P < 0. 05 ) . The level of Asprosin, HbA1c and UAR were risk factors affecting the occurrence of DN ( P <0. 05). The area under the curve for the diagnosis of DN by Asprosin combined with UAER was0. 879 (95 % CI: 0. 813-0. 974, P < 0. 05), the diagnostic specificity was 84. 19 % , and thesensitivity was 94. 57 % . Conclusion Elderly DN patients exhibit higher expression of serum Asprosin levels, which may serve as an early diagnostic indicator for the presence of diabetic nephropathy in elderly type 2 diabetes patients.

Key words: type 2 diabetes, Asprosin, diabetic nephropathy, biomarker