Original Article European rational approach for the genetics of diabetic complications—EURAGEDIC: patient populations and strategy

Background. Diabetic nephropathy is likely to be a complex genetic trait. To date, most diabetic nephrop-athy candidate gene studies have tested a limited number of genes and variants in small sized popula-tions, or in populations that were poorly matched or phenotyped. The main objective of the EURAGEDIC study was to address these problems. Methods. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes were tested for association with overt diabetic nephropathy (persistent albuminuria>300mg/24 h) in a large (n 2499) Type 1 diabetes case/control study. Testing for transmission disequilib-rium in 541 independent parent–offspring trios with or without diabetic nephropathy was applied for valida-tion of consistency. Candidate genes were selecte