Investigation of Adducin 2 (beta) DNA polymorphisms in genetic predisposition to diabetic nephropathy in Type 1 diabetes

Aims Adducin 2 (beta) (ADD2) is a biological and positional candidate gene proposed to confer genetic risk for diabetic nephropathy. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate all common and putatively functional polymorphisms in the genomic region encompassing this gene. Methods Tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (n = 23) derived from phase II of the International HapMap Project and in silico functional variants (n = 2) were genotyped in 1467 White individuals from the British Isles (cases, n = 718; control subjects, n = 749) by a combination of Sequenom iPLEX and TaqMan technologies. Results chi(2) analysis of genotype and allele frequencies in cases vs. control subjects revealed weak evidence for association of one variant at the 5% level of significance (rs10164951, P = 0.02). Adjusting for multiple testing in the present case-control collection negated this association. Conclusions We selected an appropriate subset of variants suitable for genetic investigations of the ADD2 gene and report the first investigation of polymorphisms in ADD2 with diabetic nephropathy. Our results suggest that common polymorphisms and putatively functional variants in the ADD2 gene do not strongly influence genetic susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy in this White population with Type 1 diabetes.