A new study has linked a genetic variant on chromosome 2 with kidney failure in diabetic women but not in men.
Niina Sandholm from Helsinki University Central Hospital and Folkhalsan Research Center, in Finland designed a study to detect genetic variants that might predispose diabetic women to kidney failure and identified a genetic variant on chromosome 2 that was linked with kidney failure in women with type 1 diabetes but not in men.
Diabetic women with the risk variant had a nearly two-fold increased risk of developing kidney failure compared with diabetic women who did not have the risk variant.
The genetic variant is located close to a gene for a factor that interacts with the estrogen receptor and also helps regulate kidney function. It will be interesting to see if this factor plays a role in the gender-specific protection against kidney failure seen in this study.
The study will be published in Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. (ANI)