Objective To investigate the expressions and clinical significance of adiponectin(ADPN)and secretory melanoma cell adhesion molecule(MCAM)in patients with type 2 diabetic nephropathy(T2DN).

Methods A total of 180 T2DN patients admitted to Hainan West Central Hospital from June 2020 to June 2021 were selected as T2DN group. According to the urinary albumin excretion rate (UAER), the patients in the T2DN group weredivided into mild group (n=52), moderate group (n=66) and severe group (n=62). Fifty-eight healthy subjects with normal physical examinations were selected as control group, the differences of ADPN and MCAM in T2DN patients with different degrees of disease were compared, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the clinical efficacy of serum ADPN and secreted MCAM in the diagnosis of T2DN.

Results The expression level of serum ADPN in T2DN group was (10.67±1.21) μg/mL, which was lower than (12.36±3.08) μg/mL in control group, and the expression level of secreted MCAM was (118.89±26.07) μg/L, which was higher than (68.79±18.34) μg/L that in control group, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The serum ADPN levels in the moderate group and severe group were lower than those in the mild group, the ADPN level in the severe group was lower than that in moderate group, the secretory MCAM levels in the moderate group and severe group were higher than that in mild group, and the MCAM level in the severe group was higher than that in moderate group, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). ROC curve showed that the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity of serum ADPN and secretory MCAM in diagnosis of T2DN were higher than those of serum ADPN and secretory MCAM alone (Z=2.223, 2.344, P < 0.05).

Conclusion Serum ADPN and secretory MCAM may be used as indicators for T2DN diagnosis and disease assessment, and the combined detection can improve the diagnosis rate of T2DN.