rs5015480

Of 40 SNPs previously associated with type 2 diabetes, 19 (48%) introduce or remove CpG sites. In 84 human pancreatic islet donors, all 16 analyzed CpG-SNPs showed statistically significant differential DNA methylation (p≤2.3×10⁻⁵). Several CpG-SNPs including rs391300 (SRR), rs5945326 (DUSP9), rs11708067 (ADCY5), rs5015480 (HHEX), rs13266634 (SLC30A8), rs1801214 (WFS1), rs564398 (CDKN2A), and rs2237895 (KCNQ1) were associated with differential gene expression, alternative splicing, or hormone secretion, suggesting DNA methylation-mediated mechanisms linking genetic variants to type 2 diabetes pathogenesis.

Association analysis of 31 GWAS-confirmed type 2 diabetes SNPs in 3,089 Indian sib pairs (2,528 for quantitative traits, 561 for diabetes) identified significant associations with intermediate traits: CDKAL1 rs7756992, TCF7L2 rs7903146 and rs12255372 with fasting glucose (β=0.009-0.01, p≤0.01); ADAM30 rs2641348, NOTCH2 rs10923931, TCF-2/HNF1B rs757210, and CDKN2A/B rs10811661 with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR (β=±0.05-0.09, p≤0.05); and THADA rs7578597 with type 2 diabetes (OR 1.5, p=0.03).

This case-control study in 869 Korean women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and 632 non-diabetic controls examined whether type 2 diabetes-associated genetic variants discovered in recent GWAS are also associated with GDM. Multiple variants showed significant associations with GDM, including rs7756992 and rs7754840 in CDKAL1 (OR 1.55, p=4.17×10⁻⁹), rs10811661 in CDKN2A-CDKN2B (OR 1.49, p=1.05×10⁻⁷), variants in HHEX, rs4402960 in IGF2BP2 (OR 1.18, p=0.03), rs13266634 in SLC30A8 (OR 1.24, p=0.005), and rs7903146 in TCF7L2 (OR 1.58, p=0.038).

This study tests the thrifty genotype hypothesis by examining 17 confirmed type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci and 13 obesity-susceptibility loci for signatures of positive selection. Using ancestral/derived allele analysis, integrated haplotype scores (iHS), and population differentiation (FST), the authors found limited evidence supporting the thrifty genotype hypothesis. Only rs7901695 at TCF7L2 showed notably elevated FST values (0.579 between JPT+CHB and YRI populations), and FTO showed the strongest selection signal among obesity loci (iHS=1.991).

This case-control association study in 864 Japanese type 2 diabetes patients and 864 controls confirmed that three SNPs in HHEX (rs5015480 OR=1.46, rs7923837 OR=1.40, rs1111875 OR=1.30) were significantly associated with type 2 diabetes across ethnic groups. SNPs in FTO, CDKAL1, CDKN2B, and SLC30A8 showed nominal associations, while several SNPs were associated with impaired pancreatic beta cell function measured by HOMA-beta index.