Brito EC, Lyssenko V, Renström F et al.
Umeå University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden.
Diabetes 2009;58:1411–8.
[2] Genetic predisposition, Western dietary pattern, and the risk of type 2 diabetes in men.
Qi L, Cornelis MC, Zhang C et al.
Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Am J Clin Nutr 2009;89:1453–8.
Editor’s note: Recent genome-wide association studies have clearly demonstrated that a number of genetic variants may predispose to type 2 diabetes, but how these interact with dietary and physical activity risk factors is unknown. In the study by Brito et al., as expected, physical inactivity predisposed to diabetes with a relative risk of 1.41 compared with those who reported that they were physically active [1]. Furthermore, a number of previously known genetic associations with diabetes were confirmed, including
SLC30A8,
TCF7L2,
CDKAL1,
NO2CH2,
KCNJ11,
IGFBG2,
JAZF1,
HHEX,
MMTNR1B, and
TSPANA8. The majority of these genes were not associated with self-reported physical activity. However, for three of the 17 polymorphisms associated with diabetes – specifically, the
HNF1B,
CDKN2A/B, and
PPARG polymorphisms – there were significant associations with physical activity (p<0.03). These interactions were significant for impaired glucose regulation only, but the
HNF1B variant alone was associated with incident diabetes.