Susceptibility Genes Explain High Rate of Diabetic Kidney Failure in Blacks
posted 11/26/03
New evidence found that genetic variations in regions of certain chromosomes are linked to severe kidney disease in younger African Americans with diabetes.

The findings may ultimately lead to new drugs to prevent kidney failure in diabetics.

According to their report at the American Society of Nephrology meeting, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center analyzed DNA from 216 black families in which at least two siblings had developed type 2 diabetes and severe kidney disease.

Their research showed genetic linkage, particularly in younger patients, between kidney disease and regions on chromosomes 3 and 18. According to Dr. Barry I. Freedman, who presented his group's findings, these polymorphic regions had been previously demonstrated in type 1 diabetics from other ethnic groups.

We found that the same regions are linked to type 2 diabetes-associated kidney disease in blacks, and whats exciting is that genes that regulate kidney failure appear to be independent of diabetes type.

Diabetes is just a risk factor, he added, and "genetic susceptibility to kidney failure is what puts these people over the edge."

His own group had previously identified abnormalities on chromosome 10, and their current research replicated those findings.

Dr. Freedman hopes that once the involved genes are identified, proteomic analysis will reveal "why some diabetics get kidney disease and others don't." Moreover, the involved proteins represent potential therapeutic targets "to prevent kidney failure in people who are otherwise at risk."

Source: Diabetes In Control.com.

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