Gender Differences in Genetic Associations of RAB38 with Urinary Protein-to-Creatinine Ratio (UPCR) Levels in Diabetic Nephropathy Patients.

Renal dysfunction is common in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Previous findings from a meta-analysis of GWAS indicated that the variation of RAB38/CTSC is highly associated with the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) in European populations. In addition, RAB38 knockout rats showed an increase in urinary albumins. Although the prevalence of chronic kidney disease is high in Taiwan, the role of genetic variants in diabetic renal function is still unclear. In the current study, 275 diabetic nephropathy (DN) patients were recruited to perform a genetic association study. Our results indicated that rs1027027, rs302647, and rs302646 in RAB38 were significantly associated with urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) levels in DN patients. Importantly, after analysis stratified by gender, a significant genetic influence on UPCR levels was observed in the male population. The findings confirmed the roles of gender and variants of RAB38 in the risk of UPCR in Diabetic Nephropathy patients.