Diabetes is one of the major causes of end stage renal failure in Taiwan. Previous studies have indicated that lipid abnormalities might contribute to the development and progression of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Apolipoprotein E (apo E) regulates the metabolism of lipoproteins. Three different apo E alleles (epsilon2, epsilon3 and epsilon4) produce apo E isoproteins, apo E2, apo E3 and apo E4. Thus, the apo E gene polymorphism may be associated with DN.To investigate the distribution of apo E genotype in type 2 diabetic Taiwanese, we examined 314 patients with type 2 diabetes (100 without nephropathy and 214 with nephropathy) and 150 age-matched normal controls. The diagnosis of nephropathy was made when daily protein loss exceeded 500 mg. The apo E gene polymorphism was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction.Our study found that the frequency of apo E2 allele was significantly higher in the diabetics with nephropathy- non-dialysis group (7.7%) and diabetics with nephropathy- dialysis group (7.7%) than in normal controls (1.7%) (p < 0.001) and diabetics without nephropathy (2.0%) (p < 0.01). The E3 and E4 allele frequencies were not significantly different among groups.These findings imply that apo E polymorphism is apparently related to the development of DN in type 2 diabetes in Taiwan.