Research

Hormonal

Type 2 diabetes is a complex metabolic disorder driven by a strong genetic predisposition involving at least 75 identified common genetic loci, with heritability further modulated by epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation in response to environmental factors.

Your risk for Type 2 Diabetes is significantly influenced by your genetics, with over 75 specific gene variants linked to the disease. However, this risk is not fixed; it interacts with your environment through epigenetic changes (like DNA methylation). This means that while you cannot change your DNA, you can influence how those genes are expressed through lifestyle factors, potentially mitigating genetic risk.

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Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is a common complex metabolic disorder that has a strong genetic predisposition. During the past decade, progress in genetic association studies has enabled the identification of at least 75 independent genetic loci for T2DM... Environmental factors also have a crucial role in the development of T2DM. These could modulate gene expression via epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, histone modification and microRNA regulation.
Soo Heon Kwak et al. · Experimental & Molecular Medicine · 2016

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The paper synthesizes large-scale GWAS, meta-analyses, and sequencing studies from multiple consortia.

Source

Recent progress in genetic and epigenetic research on type 2 diabetes

Soo Heon Kwak et al. · Experimental & Molecular Medicine · 2016

DOI 10.1038/emm.2016.7

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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