Meta-analysis of genes and genetic variants implicated in Type II diabetes mellitus, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic nephropathy

Meta-analysis is a popular technique for aggregating evidence from a variety of similar studies for collective comparison. This paper presents data on genes and genetic variants (SNPs) associated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Diabetic Retinopathy, and Diabetic Nephropathy. Retinopathy and nephropathy are microvascular diseases that occur as a consequence of long-term diabetes. An overlap of the genes and SNPs revealed only one gene and one SNP to be common among the three diseases. The pathways associated with these diseases showed overlap to a certain extent. In this study, we have pooled all the genes and genetic variants associated with these three diseases and analyzed the overlaps/interactions. Such analyses lead to a better understanding of the disease mechanisms. We have analyzed the data using various tools such as KEGG, GO, and Network Analyst. Several genes were identified that have a significant role in the pathways of all three diseases. EPO is the only gene which was identified to be associated commonly among the three diseases. Among the genetic variants, rs1617640 of the gene EPO is the only common variant among the three diseases. The data cataloged in this paper serves as a genomic resource for diabetes and its associated microvascular diseases and it will also benefit as a resource for scientists working in this area of research.