Genetics of diabetic nephropathy

Genetic susceptibility has been proposed as an important factor for the development and progression of diabetic nephropathy, and research efforts have been invested worldwide to identify the susceptibility gene for diabetic nephropathy. Although, several candidate genes were shown to be associated with the disease, the results were not always consistent; most of the genes conferring susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy remain to be identified. Recent development of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing technology and collation of information on linkage disequilibrium in the human genome have facilitated genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for investigating novel disease-susceptibility genes across the entire human genome. GWASs are considered a powerful and promising approach and are expected to be useful for identifying convincing susceptibility genes for several common diseases; however, to date, these studies have not been able to completely cover the entire human genome.