Diabetic nephropathy is due to longstanding diabetes mellitus, is the most common cause of chronic kidney failure and end-stage renal disease in Europe. End-stage renal disease is a major socio-economic burden with annual costs exceeding $ 80 billion in the Western world (International society for nephrology, 2003). People with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are at risk. The risk is higher if blood-glucose levels are poorly controlled.
However, once nephropathy develops, the greatest rate of progression is seen in patients with poor control of their blood pressure. Throughout its early course, diabetic nephropathy has no symptoms. Therefore, the most important goal involves the discovery of biomarkers for the detection and assessment of diabetic nephropathy in an early stage, allowing prophylactic measures that can prevent or at least slow the progression of kidney damage and control related complications.