Diabetes mellitus type II(DMt2) is a chronic metabolic disease with a pandemic spread worldwide.
Environmental influences and genetic background are included in the pathogenesis of the disease. More than 40 suspected loci have been associated with the risk of developing type II diabetes. Four of these (rs7903146, rs10830963, rs7756992, rs13266634) have been studied in a Greek population sample.Numerous SNPs have been associated with obesity, includingFTO rs9939609, which has been studied in the above population, is quite frequent (44% frequency of A), without showing any difference between genders and has also been associated with type II diabetes, although it is still unknown whether the association is independent or not to obesity.
According to our findings the frequency of disease susceptible alleles of polymorphisms rs7903146, rs10830963, rs7756992 and rs13266634 ranges from 25% to 70%. No statistical significant differences in the frequency between the two genders in both genotype and allele level have been observed. Obesity represents the most important risk factor for type II diabetes.
Although, the genetic basis of diabetes type 2 and obesity are now recognized and documented by several studies, including the present, and it is well understood that polymorphisms could likely explain differences in disease susceptibility and prevalence among groups of humans and lead to individualization of treatment, unfortunately, it is not yet transferred in daily clinical practice.
However, it is expected in the following years to contribute significantly to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these frequent diseases.
