Research teams discover link between gene, type 2 diabetes

TOKYO - Two groups of researchers in Japan have identified a gene that is directly linked to the occurrence of diabetes, a discovery that is likely to help in the early identification of people who may be susceptible to the disease.

One group of researchers from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) and another from the International Medical Center of Japan separately studied individual diabetic cases involving Japanese patients.

Their findings, summarized in their respective reports, were published in the online edition of the U.S. medical journal Nature Genetics on Monday.

The researchers found a link between a gene known as KCNQ1 and the onset of type 2 diabetes - the variant affecting 90 percent of Japan's 8.2 million diabetic patients.

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is attributed to a lack of physical exercise, excessive eating and genetics.

Studies involving Europeans and Americans earlier led to the discovery of another gene linked to type 2 diabetes. However, as genetic impacts were known to vary among genetically distinct populations, a separate study on Japanese people became essential to prove the genetic aspect.

The two Japanese teams separately conducted large-scale studies, with the Riken team comparing the genes of a total of 9,000 people with and without type 2 diabetes.

Both teams found a small genetic variation, known as a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), in DNA sequences of KCNQ1 genes of the patient group in their separate studies.