Genetic Predisposition to Diabetic Nephropathy: Evidence for a Role of ACE (I/D) Gene Polymorphism in Type 2 Diabetic Population from Kutch Region

Genetic polymorphism as described with angiotensin-converting enzyme gene has been proposed as a putative mediator of diabetic nephropathy. We substantiate the hypothesis that genetic variants of the ACE have significant impacts on diabetic nephropathy. To assess the possible association between the three ACE polymorphic variants and DN in an ethnically homogeneous type 2 diabetic population from Kutch region. A 287-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in intron 16 of the ACE gene was examined by polymerase chain reaction using a case–control approach conducted with 309 unrelated type 2 diabetic patients of Kutch origin (159 Ahir and 150 Rabari, with > 10 years duration of T2DM). Of the patients, 143 had nephropathy {AER > 30 mg/day (Ahir, n :73 and Rabari, n :70)} and were considered as cases; all others { n :166 (86 Ahir and 80 Rabari)} were normoalbuminuric (AER