Stephen S. Rich

Abstract:  The Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC) is an international, multicenter program organized to promote research to identify genes and their alleles that determine an individual's risk for type 1 diabetes (T1D). The primary goal of the T1DGC is to establish resources and data that can be used by, and that is fully accessible to, the research community in the study of T1D. All the information on T1DGC can be accessed at the following web address: http://www.t1dgc.org. A resource base of well‐characterized families is being assembled that will facilitate the localization and characterization of T1D susceptibility genes. From these families, the T1DGC is establishing banks of DNA, serum, plasma, and cell lines, as well as useful databases. The T1DGC also sponsors training opportunities (bioinformatics) and technology transfer (HLA genotyping).

Type 1 diabetes is the third most prevalent chronic disease of childhood, affecting up to 0.4% of children in some populations by age 30 yr, with an overall lifetime risk of nearly 1% (1,2). It is believed that a large proportion of cases of type 1 diabetes result from the autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic β cells, leading to complete dependence on exogenous insulin to regulate blood glucose levels (3). Type 1 diabetes is strongly clustered in families with an overall genetic risk ratio (the prevalence in siblings of a proband relative to the population prevalence, λ_S) of approximately 15 (4). (This compares with the less familial but more prevalent type 2 diabetes with λ_S of approximately 2). At least one locus that contributes strongly to this familial clustering resides within the MHC on chromosome 6p21, which accounts for nearly 40% of the observed familial clustering of type 1 diabetes, with a locus-specific genetic risk ratio (λ_S) of approximately 3 (5). In a recent analysis of data from three previous genomewide scans (United States, United Kingdom, and Scandinavia) as well as new families collected for the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (http://www.t1dgc.org), 1435 multiplex families provided evidence for linkage of type 1 diabetes to the MHC (IDDM1), insulin (INS, IDDM2), a region that contains several genes, including CTLA4 (2q31-q33 [IDDM12 and IDDM7]) and seven other chromosome regions (6).

Background: GLUT10 (gene symbol SLC2A10) is a facilitative glucose transporter within the type 2 diabetes (T2DM)-linked region on chromosome 20q12-13.1. Therefore, we evaluated GLUT10 as a positional candidate gene for T2DM in Caucasian Americans. Methods: Twenty SNPs including 4 coding, 10 intronic and 6 5' and 3' to the coding sequence were genotyped across a 100 kb region containing the SLC2A10 gene in DNAs from 300 T2DM cases and 310 controls using the Sequenom MassArray Genotyping System. Allelic association was evaluated, and linkage disequilibrium (LD) and haplotype structure of SLC2A10 were also determined to assess whether any specific haplotypes were associated with T2DM. Results: Of these variants, fifteen had heterozygosities greater than 0.80 and were analyzed further for association with T2DM. No evidence of significant association was observed for any variant with T2DM (all P ≥ 0.05), including Ala206Thr (rs2235491) which was previously reported to be associated with fasting insulin. Linkage disequilibrium analysis suggests that the SLC2A10 gene is contained in a single haplotype block of 14 kb. Haplotype association analysis with T2DM did not reveal any significant differences between haplotype frequencies in T2DM cases and controls. Conclusion: From our findings, we can conclude that sequence variants in or near GLUT10 are unlikely to contribute significantly to T2DM in Caucasian Americans.

Abstract: Genetic and environmental determinants play critical roles in insulin resistance and b-cell function. A model of the complex feedback system for maintenance of glucose tolerance has been developed that reflects the constraint of glycemia within narrow physiologic limits. The "glucose homeostasis" model is described by insulin sensitivity, glucose effectiveness, acute insulin response to glucose, and disposition index (DI). Relatively little is known about the genetic basis of glucose homeostasis phenotypes or their relationship to risk of diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. There is increasing evidence that variation in glucose homeostasis reflects genetic control better than that of commonly used surrogate measures (fasting glucose or fasting insulin). Further, recent linkage scans have identified regions in the human genome that may contain loci that contribute to variation in glucose homeostasis phenotypes. Thus, the prospects are encouraging for positional cloning of genes contributing to glucose homeostasis and providing insight into the nature of the metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Ultimately, knowledge of the genetic basis of glucose homeostasis will facilitate the development of more directed therapies for prevention and treatment of diabetes and other diseases associated with disordered glucose metabolism.

Plasma insulin and glucose concentrations are important quantitative phenotypes related to diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. Reports purporting to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that contribute to the variation in fasting insulin and glucose concentrations are discrepant. As part of the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS) Family Study, a genome scan was performed in African-American (n = 42) and Hispanic (n = 90) extended families to identify regions that may contain positional candidate genes for fasting insulin and fasting glucose (n = 1,604 subjects). There was significant evidence for linkage of fasting insulin to the short arm of chromosome 17 (logarithm of odds [LOD] = 3.30; 54 cM between D17S1294 and D17S1299, P = 1.0 × 10⁻⁴). The strongest evidence for linkage over all pedigrees for fasting glucose was also observed in this region (LOD = 1.44; 58 cM, P = 9.9 × 10⁻³). The results of this study provide impetus for future positional cloning of QTLs regulating insulin and glucose levels. Identifying genes in these regions should provide insight into the nature of genetic factors regulating plasma glucose and insulin concentrations.