Researchers trace diabetes complications to gene

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A single gene called erythropoietin (EPO) helps raise the risk among diabetics of developing severe eye and kidney complications, a study released Monday said.

The University of Utah researchers compared 1,618 people suffering from the eye and kidney problems with 954 diabetic patients without the complications. They found that people with a mutant EPO gene had a higher risk of developing the two diseases.

The eye complication, known as proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), is the most common cause of legal blindness among adults in the United States. Diabetes is also the main cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

Kang Zhang, the director of the Division of Ophthalmic Genetics at the university's Moran Eye Center, warned that the...