HLA-A2 Antigen: a risk factor in diabetic nephropathy

ABSTRACT

In this study, 80 diabetic patients were classified into 2 groups group I [40 patients] without evidence of diabetic nephropathy in spite of long duration of diabetes [more than 15 years], and group II [40 patients] with overt diabetic nephropathy. The 2 groups were compared with 260 normal control group for HLA-A2 antigen. HLA-A2 antigen was more prevalent in patients with diabetic nephropathy as 77.5% of them were HLA-A2 positive compared to 30% of patients without diabetic nephropathy and 36.2% normal controls. Other factors such as family history of diabetic nephropathy, and poor glycemic control and age of onset of diabetes were more observed in patients with diabetic nephropathy. This points that, HLA typing may be useful in defining risk of renal disease in diabetic patients, also poor glycemic control may be a risk factor for initiation of diabetic nephropathy in a patient genetically susceptible for it