title: Lack of association of the insulin gene region with type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus in Japanese subjects.
abstract: Although the insulin gene region is implicated in susceptibility to Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus in Caucasians, significance of this region to Type 1 diabetes in Japanese remains unclear because the class 1 alleles (shorter insertion) of the variable number of tandem repeat in the 5' region of the insulin gene are predominant in both diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. The 5' insulin gene polymorphism was analysed in 75 Japanese patients and 69 control subjects with a precise method using PvuII and a polymorphism specific probe, which enabled us to divide class 1 alleles into four subclasses. Allelic frequencies were not significantly different between Type 1 diabetic patients and control subjects. The polymorphism in the 3' untranslated region of the insulin gene (1127/PstI) was also analysed and found to be tightly linked to the 5' insulin gene polymorphism, and thus was not associated with diabetes. Interaction between HLA-DR and the insulin gene region, which was reported in the French study, was not observed in Japanese. These results suggest that the insulin gene region is not a valuable genetic risk factor for Type 1 diabetes in Japanese.
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi, Japan.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Awata
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwamoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuzuya
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kanazawa
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000483:Alleles; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000235:genetics*; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012016:Reference Values; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015183:Restriction Mapping
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D007328:Insulin; C025630:CAGCTG-specific type II deoxyribonucleases; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific