Abstract

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex metabolic disorder caused by environmental and genetic factors. Purpose: Here, we provided the evidence for the association of rs2237895 variant of potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily Q member 1 (KCNQ1) gene with the risk of T2DM in a group of Iranian patients. Methods: KCNQ1 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes were characterized in a representative sample of 97 patients with T2DM and 97 healthy volunteers using Sanger sequencing technique. Results: We observed that T2DM patients did not significantly differ with healthy individuals in genotypes and alleles frequency of rs2237895 KCNQ1 gene (P = 0.7 and P = 0.6, respectively). Frequencies of genotypes of rs2237895 polymorphism (AC + CC) among T2DM patients with renal complication were significantly lower than T2DM patients without (42.86 and 91.67, respectively, P = 0.038, OR = 0.07, and 95 CI = 0.005-0.86). Conclusion: Our result showed that rs2237895 KCNQ1 gene polymorphism was not associated with T2DM but the presence of this variant significantly prevented developing renal complications.