The Genetics of Vascular Complications in Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Prospective identification of which individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM) are at greatest risk of developing cardiovascular (CVD) complications would have considerable public health importance by allowing the allocation of limited resources to be focused on those individuals who would most benefit from aggressive intervention. Over the past 20 years genetic disease association studies have demonstrated that polymorphisms at specific genetic loci may identify those individuals at greatest risk of developing CVD in the setting of DM. This article reviews the evidence accumulated to date on four polymorphic loci with the aim of explaining how these polymorphisms modify the risk of CVD in DM by modifying the functional activity of a specific gene. Utilization of the knowledge of these genetic differences among individuals in targeting drug therapy (pharmacogenomics) is also discussed.

The effect of MTHFR C677T polymorphism on type 2 diabetes mellitus with vascular complications in Chinese Han population: A meta-analysis

“…In our metaanalysis, we only focused on the relation between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and T2DM with vascular complications, and did not evaluate other genes or polymorphisms. The potential role of C677T polymorphism may be affected by other gene and environment factors [57].…”

Haptoglobin 2-2 Genotype Is Associated with Increased Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Northern Chinese

“…Hp genotypes and phenotypes have been reported to be associated with various diseases, including diabetic vascular complications (Levy et al, 2000Costacou et al, 2008;Farbstein and Levy, 2010), diabetic nephropathy (Nakhoul et al, 2001;Bessa et al, 2007;Conway et al, 2007), gestational diabetes mellitus (Mustafa et al, 2004), diabetes (Quaye et al, 2006), malaria (Cox et al, 2007(Cox et al, , 2008, anaemia (Atkinson et al, 2006) ,and HIV infection (Friis et al, 2003).…”

Investigation of the relationship between MTHFR, IRS and CALCA gene polymorphisms and development of diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

“…The methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene is among the genes that are implicated in the development of DN from microvascular complications of type 2 DM [3]. The human MTHFR gene is localised in the telomeric region of the chromosome 1 (1p36.3) and encodes the enzyme MTHFR.…”

“…Although this relationship is known, only a few studies have investigated the relationship between MTHFR gene polymorphisms and DN development [3,[11][12][13].…”

“…Due to many acute and chronic complications, type 2 DM is a multifactorial disease in which environmental and genetic factors are effective [1][2][3]. Genetic factors play a more important role in type 2 DM, which is characterised by progressive b cell dysfunction and varying rates of insulin resistance.…”