A variant located in the acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase beta gene (ACACB) is linked to increased risk for nephropathy in Chinese Type 2 diabetics, report researchers.

The risk allele of the ACACB single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2268388 has previously been linked to nephropathy in Type 2 diabetics from Japanese and European-American populations.

To investigate whether this association is also present in Chinese patients, Sydney Tang (The University of Hong Kong, China) and colleagues genotyped for eight ACACB SNPs, including rs2268388, in 592 Chinese Type 2 diabetics from Hong Kong or Southern China aged 66.6 years on average.

Of the participants, 295 had advanced diabetic nephropathy and 300 had long-standing diabetes but no nephropathy.

As reported in the journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, the researchers found that patients with diabetic nephropathy were 2.39 times more likely than patients with Type 2 diabetes alone to be carriers of the risk-associated T allele of the rs2268388 SNP.

None of the remaining seven SNPs were associated with diabetic nephropathy, however, and there was no evidence of haplotypic association when genotypes were combined.

“These results in the Chinese replicate the association between Type 2 diabetic nephropathy and rs2268388, as seen in Japanese and European Americans,” conclude Tang et al.

Tang and co-authors suggest that fatty acid oxidation pathways could be involved in the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetic nephropathy, as previous experiments have shown that mice with a dysfunctional ACACB gene are apparently healthy, and although they consume more food than other mice, appear to be less prone to obesity and diabetes than mice with a functional version of the gene.

“Targeting this pathway may provide novel treatment options for the prevention of diabetic nephropathy,” say the team.

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2010

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