Is There a Link between Diabetics with Allergies and Kidney Disease?

Japanese researchers have reported a possible link between allergies and kidney disease in type 2 diabetic men.  It’s appeared in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.  The linking factors are a raised eosinophil count and albumin in the urine.  

Almost 800 type 2 diabetics (416 men and 367 women) eosinophil counts, urinary albumin levels, and a full cardiovascular disease assessment done.  (Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that occur in increased numbers in allergic conditions;  albumin in the urine of a diabetic is a signal marker of kidney disease.)

The eosinophil counts were positively associated with the albumin excretion, systolic blood pressure, and serum triglyceride levels in men; in women, however, there was no link between eosinophil counts and albumin excretion.  The authors of the study conclude: “Allergic disorders may be associated with microalbuminuria in men with type 2 diabetes”.

This study doesn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship between eosinophil count and albumin excretion rate, much less a relationship between allergies and kidney disease in type 2 diabetes.  Nevertheless, it does provide a possibly relevant link in a chain of events, trying to show why diabetics develop renal failure.  But why was the finding ‘positive’ in men, and not in women??