Animal Models

Diabetic nephropathy is the major cause of morbidity and premature mortality in individuals with type-2 diabetes. While it is well established that uncontrolled diabetes underlies the development of this complication, newer evidence suggests that genetically determined susceptibility to hyper-glycemia-caused glomerular injury is also necessary. Diabetic nephropathy is observed in up to 30% of patients who have suffered from type-2 diabetes for more than 10 years. Familial aggregation of nephropathy in type-2 diabetes has been noted in both Pima Indians and Caucasoids. This observation is consistent with but not definite evidence for the hypothesis that independent genes code for type-2 diabetes on the one hand and for development of diabetic nephropathy on the other hand. In this paper we describe several rodent models of spontaneous type-2 diabetes that underwent genetic analysis using genome-wide analysis with microsatellite-based chromosomal maps.