Washington, June 2 : Lean type 2 diabetes patients have a larger genetic disposition to the disease as compared to their obese counterparts, a new study has proved. <\/p>\n
Type 2 diabetes is popularly associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. However, just as there are obese people without type 2 diabetes, there are lean people with the disease. <\/p>\n
It has long been hypothesised that type 2 diabetes in lean people is more \"genetically driven\". <\/p>\n
The study, from a research team led by the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), University of Exeter, has also identified a new genetic factor associated only with lean diabetes sufferers. <\/p>\n
Using genetic data from genome-wide association studies, the research team tested genetic markers across the genome in approximately 5,000 lean patients with type 2 diabetes, 13,000 obese patients with the disease and 75,000 healthy controls. <\/p>\n
The team found differences in genetic enrichment between lean and obese cases, which support the hypothesis that lean diabetes sufferers have a greater genetic predisposition to the disease. <\/p>\n
This is in contrast to obese patients with type 2 diabetes, where factors other than type 2 diabetes genes are more likely to be responsible. In addition, genetic variants near the gene, LAMA1, were linked to type 2 diabetes risk for the first time, with an effect that appeared only in the lean patients. <\/p>\n
\"Whenever a new disease gene is found, there is always the potential for it to be used as a drug target for new therapies or as a biomarker, but more work is needed to see whether or not this new gene has that potential,\" John Perry, one of the lead authors of the study, said. <\/p>\n
\"This is the first time that a type 2 diabetes gene has been found to act in this way - we do not know why it should be associated in one sub-group of patients and not another. <\/p>\n
\"It could point to the fact that type 2 diabetes may not be one disease, but may represent a number of subgroups. Again, more work is required to prove this hypothesis. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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New genetic factor associated with lean diabetics identified<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Washington, June 2 : Lean type 2 diabetes patients have a larger genetic disposition to the disease as compared to their obese counterparts, a new study has proved. Type 2 diabetes is popularly associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. However, just as there are obese people without type 2 diabetes, there are lean people with the disease Continue reading