Moreover, the decreased expression levels of TRIM27 [estimate of the log2-fold-change (logFC) corresponding to the DKD control glomeruli was −0.506 and P = 4.10×10−3], HLA-A (logFC = −1.053 and P = 1.19×10−3), HLA-DQA1 (logFC =−1.758 and P = 8.09×10−3), HLA-DQB1 (logFC = −1.234 and P = 4.78×10−4), HLA-DQB2 (logFC = −0.450 and P = 2.21×10−2), and HLA-DRB6 (logFC =−0.725 and P = 3.53×10−5) genes were associated with DKD glomeruli in GEO datasets (GSE30529; Table 5 and Additional file 1: Table S6). Here, HLA-A is linked to diabetic kidney disease.