Abstract
Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a serious microvascular complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Despite the numerous genetic loci that have been associated with the disease in T2DM, the genetic architecture of DKD remains unclear until today. In contrast to SERPINE1, the contribution of SERPINB2 has not been examined in DKD. Therefore, we conducted the first genetic association study of SERPINB2 to elucidate its role in DKD. In total, the study involved 197 patients with DKD, 155 patients with T2DM without microvascular complications (diabetic kidney disease, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic neuropathy), and 246 healthy controls. The generalized odds ratio (OR(G)) was calculated to estimate the risk on DKD development. The present association study regarding SERPINB2 SNPs (rs4941230, rs3819335, rs13381217, rs6140) did not reveal any significant association between SERPINB2 variants and DKD. Additional studies in other populations are necessary to further investigate the role of this gene in the progression of diabetes mellitus and development of DKD.