Group-specific component exon 11 haplotypes (D432E and T436K) and risk of albuminuria in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

Abstract

Background

Emerging evidence indicates group-specific component (GC) variants are associated with ethnicity. We aimed to investigate the association of GC variants and protein expression level with T2DM and diabetic nephropathy (DN) in Saudi patients.

Subjects and methods

A total of 200 participants (120 T2DM/80 controls) were genotyped for GC-rs7041/GC-rs4588 by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Serum GC was assessed by ELISA and in silico analysis was executed.

Results

GC-rs7041 frequency distribution showed no difference between the study groups, while GC-rs4588 showed association with T2DM under all genetic models. rs4588*AA variant was correlated with higher serum GC globulin, albuminuria, and poor glycaemic control. A higher frequency of rs7041*TT and rs4588*AA was evident in macroalbuminuria vs. normoalbuminuria group. Carrying GC-2 haplotype was 2.5 more likely to develop diabetes and correlated with the levels of albuminuria.

Conclusions

GC variants could have independent effects on the risk of T2DM and DN in the study population.

Keywords:

• Type 2 diabetes mellitus
• diabetic nephropathy
• group-specific component
• polymorphisms
• real-time PCR

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants who agree to join this work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.