F. Chiarelli et al., GENETIC PREDISPOSITION TO HYPERTENSION (AS DETECTED BY NA+ LI+ COUNTERTRANSPORT) AND RISK OF DIABETIC NEPHROPATHY IN CHILDHOOD DIABETES/, Journal of paediatrics and child health, 30(6), 1994, pp. 547-549
In order to evaluate whether insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patie
nts with incipient nephropathy have an overactivity of erythrocyte sod
ium-lithium countertransport (Na+/Li+ CT), 82 diabetic children and 38
healthy age-matched control subjects and their parents and grandparen
ts were studied. The children were divided into two groups according t
o the presence of persistent microalbuminuria (MA). Diabetic children
with MA had Na+/Li+ CT activity higher than normoalbuminuric diabetics
and healthy controls. The parents and grandparents of microalbuminuri
c patients showed higher Na+/Li+ CT than parents and grandparents of n
ormoalbuminuric diabetics and of the controls. This study demonstrates
that predisposition to hypertension, as indicated by increased Na+/Li
+ CT activity in erythrocytes, is more frequently detectable in patien
ts with persistent microalbuminuria than in diabetics without persiste
nt microalbuminuria or in healthy controls. Overactivity of Na+/Li+ CT
is present also in parents and grandparents of diabetic children with
MA. This study suggests that genetic predisposition to hypertension i
s more frequent in patients at risk of developing diabetic nephropathy
, as well as in their parents and grandparents.