Genetic link to tiny babies and diabetes
Source: Agencies |
April 8, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
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SCIENTISTS have found two genetic regions that affect a baby's size at birth and say one of them is also linked with developing diabetes in later life.
The finding, published in the journal Nature Genetics, is the first firm evidence of a genetic link between low birth weight and diabetes and helps explain why small babies have higher rates of diabetes when they grow up, the scientists said.
Type 2 diabetes, often called adult-onset diabetes, is a common disease that interferes with the body's ability to use sugar and insulin, a substance produced by the pancreas which lowers blood sugar after eating.
The condition is reaching epidemic levels, with an estimated 180 million people now suffering from diabetes around the world.
Scientists knew lighter babies were more at risk of having type 2 diabetes as adults, but it was not clear why.
It is widely thought that a pregnant mother's diet can influence the growth of her baby and its later risk of disease, a process known as "programing." But the latest research confirms that genes are also important.
"It is now important for us to establish how much of the association is due to our genes and how much is due to the environment, because this will inform how we target efforts to prevent the disease," said Rachel Freathy of the Peninsula Medical School in southern England, who worked on the study.
The team analyzed more than 38,000 Europeans from 19 previous studies, finding two genetic variants were strongly linked with birth weight. One variant had also been linked with susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. People who inherit two "risk copies" of this are at a 25 percent higher risk of diabetes in adulthood.
The finding, published in the journal Nature Genetics, is the first firm evidence of a genetic link between low birth weight and diabetes and helps explain why small babies have higher rates of diabetes when they grow up, the scientists said.
Type 2 diabetes, often called adult-onset diabetes, is a common disease that interferes with the body's ability to use sugar and insulin, a substance produced by the pancreas which lowers blood sugar after eating.
The condition is reaching epidemic levels, with an estimated 180 million people now suffering from diabetes around the world.
Scientists knew lighter babies were more at risk of having type 2 diabetes as adults, but it was not clear why.
It is widely thought that a pregnant mother's diet can influence the growth of her baby and its later risk of disease, a process known as "programing." But the latest research confirms that genes are also important.
"It is now important for us to establish how much of the association is due to our genes and how much is due to the environment, because this will inform how we target efforts to prevent the disease," said Rachel Freathy of the Peninsula Medical School in southern England, who worked on the study.
The team analyzed more than 38,000 Europeans from 19 previous studies, finding two genetic variants were strongly linked with birth weight. One variant had also been linked with susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. People who inherit two "risk copies" of this are at a 25 percent higher risk of diabetes in adulthood.
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