An increased peritoneal solute transport rate (PSTR) at baseline is well known to be associated with decreased patient and technique survival in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD). Recently, angiogenesis has been recognized to be associated with PSTR and peritoneal deterioration. To investigate genetic variations in genes related to angiogenesis, 30 incident PD patients were studied. Several single nucleotide polymorphisms of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and the receptor for advanced glycation end product (RAGE) were analyzed by the pyrosequencing method. The dialysate-to-plasma ratio of creatinine (D/P Cr) obtained from a peritoneal equilibrium test (PET) during the first 12 months after initiation of PD was used for a marker of PSTR. The D/P Cr was assessed both as a continuous and as a categorical variable including high (H), high-average (HA), low-average (LA), and low (L). Baseline D/P Cr was 0.645 +/- 0.083. The RAGE -374 TA genotype had a significantly lower prevalence of the H/HA transporters than the TT genotype (20% vs 63%; P = 0.03). Genetic polymorphisms of the VEGF and eNOS were not associated with initial peritoneal transport type. The RAGE polymorphism may have a considerable effect on the basal PSTR. Further studies will be needed to confirm this hypothesis.