title: Clinical and genetic features of childhood-onset Type 2 diabetes in Japan.
abstract: We aimed to define the detailed clinical features of Japanese childhood-onset Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients who were followed-up, and to determine whether discernable characteristics were dissimilar or not from those of adult- and childhood-onset T2DM in other countries. Subjects were 22 patients (10 males and 12 females) under treatment without HNF-1alpha or mitochondrial gene mutations, and who were apparently diagnosed as diabetic when less than 15 years of age. Body mass indexes at onset in boys and girls were 25.8 +/- 6.3 and 24.7 +/- 3.6, respectively, with mean ages 13.3 +/- 1.7 and 12.8 +/- 2.0 years, respectively. Most patients had a short diabetic duration that required insulin treatment. One or both parents of 18 of the 22 T2DM subjects were diabetic and 7 subjects had a history of diabetes in their family across three generations. We demonstrated that a relatively large number of Japanese childhood-onset T2DM cases have a strong genetic factor, and are not necessarily related to excessive obesity. Furthermore, most required insulin therapy in the initial stages because of insufficient pancreatic beta-cell reserves. This suggests that malfunction of pancreatic beta-cells triggers hyperglycemia resulting in the requirement for insulin in Japanese some childhood-onset T2DM patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Japan. otabeshu@yahoo.co.jp
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Otabe
authors.forename: Hitomi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Tomoka
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukutani
authors.forename: Xiaohong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Nobuhiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashinaga
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Chizuko
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Inada
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamada
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002096:C-Peptide / Q000097:blood; D002648:Child; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D050417:Insulin-Secreting Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D002096:C-Peptide; D007328:Insulin