Seven new genetic regions linked to type 2 diabetes identified

Researchers have linked seven new genetic regions to type 2 diabetes.

DNA data was brought together from more than 48,000 patients and 139,000 healthy controls from four different ethnic groups.

The research was conducted by an international consortium of investigators from 20 countries on four continents, co-led by investigators from Oxford University's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics.

The researchers believe that, as more genetic data increasingly become available from populations of South Asian ancestry and, particularly, African descent, it will be possible to map genes implicated in type 2 diabetes ever more closely.

Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Professor Mark McCarthy from the University of Oxford, said that one of the striking features of these data is how much of the genetic variation that influences diabetes is shared between major ethnic groups.

He said that this has allowed them to combine data from more than 50 studies from across the globe to discover new genetic regions affecting risk of diabetes.

Among the regions identified by the international research team are two, near the genes ARL15 and RREB1, that also show strong links to elevated levels of insulin and glucose in the body - two key characteristics of type 2 diabetes. This finding provides insights into the ways basic biochemical processes are involved in the risk of type 2 diabetes, the scientists say.