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Kidney disease and African ancestry

Nature Genetics volume 40, pages 1145–1146 (2008)Cite this article

Mapping by admixture linkage disequilibrium (MALD) leverages differences in disease frequencies among ancestry groups to map disease-susceptibility loci on the basis of genetic admixture. Two new studies use MALD to identify variation at the MYH9 locus as a major factor for the increased risk of nondiabetic kidney disease in African Americans.

Individuals of African descent carry a significantly increased risk of kidney failure1,2. The nature of this increased risk has not been well understood. This disparity represents a serious public health problem given the high cost of keeping individuals with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) alive by kidney transplantation or dialysis, as well as the high morbidity and mortality even among people with moderate kidney disease who do not yet require these heroic forms of treatment. Often, individuals with kidney disease do not receive a histological evaluation: physicians frequently make the clinical diagnosis of hypertension-induced kidney damage, particularly in African Americans with long-standing hypertension and progressive kidney dysfunction. Notably, the pattern of kidney injury known as focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), diagnosed on the basis of kidney biopsy examination, is three to four times more common in individuals of African ancestry. Two new studies, on pages 1175 and 1185 of this issue3,4, now report a genetic locus, MYH9, that explains much of the increased risk of both of these diagnoses in this population, and thereby suggest a shared genetic (and pathophysiologic) etiology.

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Figure 1: Sequential electron micrographs (EM) of a glomerulus showing glomerular capillary loops covered by podocytes and their interdigitating contractile extensions known as foot processes.

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  1. Martin R. Pollak is in the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. mpollak@rics.bwh.harvard.edu,

    Martin R Pollak

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Pollak, M. Kidney disease and African ancestry. Nat Genet 40, 1145–1146 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1008-1145

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