Heritable influence of DBH on adrenergic and renal function: twin and disease studies

Elevated sympathetic activity is associated with kidney dysfunction. Here we used twin pairs to probe heritability of GFR and its genetic covariance with other traits. We evaluated renal and adrenergic phenotypes in twins. GFR was estimated by CKD-EPI algorithm. Heritability and genetic covariance of eGFR and associated risk traits were estimated by variance-components. Meta-analysis probed reproducibility of DBH genetic effects. Effect of DBH genetic variation on renal disease was tested in the NIDDK-AASK cohort. Norepinephrine secretion rose across eGFR tertiles while eGFR fell (p