Polymorphisms in ghrelin and heparan sulfate proteoglycan genes and their association with diabetic nephropathy in Pakistani population

Diabetic nephropathy（DN）,a long term complication of diabetes,is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease,increasing the risk of death.Genetic predispositions play an important role in determining the susceptibility of the development of DN.Heparan sulphate proteoglycan（HSPG） and ghrelin（GH） gene polymorphisms are associated with the risk of DN.T allele frequency of the HSPG gene determined by BamHI polymorphism located in intron 6 may be a risk factor for the development of renal dysfunction in DN（Fisher two tailed test,CI = 95%,d.f.= 29,P = 0.016）.The ghrelin gene polymorphism is caused by a cytosine-to-adenine transition in exon 2 of the preproghrelin gene forming Leu72Met variant.In Pakistani population,the preproghrelin Leu72Met polymorphism was observed to be not associated with diabetic nephropathy in patients as indicated by statistical analysis（CI = 95%,d.f.= 29,P = 0.691）.The allelic frequencies of HSPG genetic polymorphism has the potential to be used as diagnostic markers for diabetic nephropathy disease.