Gene may increase risk for type 2 diabetes

Two international research teams have uncovered genetic variations that predispose people to develop type 2 diabetes. The School of Medicine team, led by Alan Permutt, professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, studied Ashkenazi Jews from Israel. A team from the National Institutes of Health examined the genetic roots of the disease in people from Finland. Both groups came up with the same results. The researchers discovered that type 2 diabetics are more likely than nondiabetics to inherit a group of common genetic variations in the control region of the hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha gene. The gene encodes a protein that regulates production of hundreds of other proteins important for the development and function of the liver and pancreas.

•	Gene may increase risk for type 2 diabetes Newsday, Thursday, March 11, 2004

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