Genetic determinants of diabetic nephropathy: The family investigation of nephropathy and diabetes (FIND).

Diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of ESRD in the United States. Family-based studies and segregation analyses suggest that inherited factors play a major role in susceptibility to diabetic renal complications, including albuminuria and chronic kidney failure. The Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND) study is a multicenter consortium established by the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases to identify the gene(s) responsible for diabetic nephropathy. Eight participating centers will enroll nearly 10,000 individuals by September 2004. Two independent strategies to detect causative genes will be used. These include family-based linkage analyses in African-American, American-Indian, Mexican-American, and European-American families (predominantly affected and discordant relative pair analyses) and mapping by admixture linkage disequilibrium (MALD) in African and Mexican Americans. Cell lines are being created from participants, and a repository containing stored urine and serum samples has been developed. This paper describes the enrollment criteria and methods used in FIND to allow for the detection of gene(s) predisposing to diabetic nephropathy.