“…Like DKD, the pathogenesis of rapid renal decline in diabetes is complex and multifactorial. In addition to major risk factors that include hyperglycemia, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and albuminuria, various environmental factors (e.g., employment status, education level, and access to health care) have all been shown to contribute to DKD risk (46). Additionally, estimates of the heritability (h 2 ), or the proportion of total variation due to genetic effects, of DKD and several DKD-related traits (e.g., urinary albumin excretion rate [AER] and eGFR) have also established that genetic factors contribute to increased risk of DKD in families with diabetes (18,(40)(41)(42)(43)47,48).…”