Hormonal
Epigenetic modifications, particularly DNA methylation, serve as a mechanism through which environmental factors (such as intrauterine malnutrition, obesity, and diet) influence the development of Type 2 Diabetes.
Your environment directly impacts your genes through epigenetic changes like DNA methylation. Factors such as obesity, diet (e.g., palmitate exposure), and even prenatal nutrition can alter gene expression in ways that increase your risk for Type 2 Diabetes. This suggests that lifestyle interventions can potentially reverse or mitigate some of these epigenetic risks.
Environmental factors can affect β-cell function by mediating epigenetic changes. In a recent study, palmitate exposure to human pancreatic islets induced global and specific DNA methylation alterations that resulted in coordinate changes in mRNA expression and decreased insulin secretion.
Why this rating
Based on multiple studies including EWAS, sequencing, and functional assays in islets and muscle.
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
More from this paper
- 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.Strong
- Specific rare or low-frequency genetic variants (e.g., in SLC30A8, MTNR1B, PPARG) can have a large functional effect on T2DM risk, with some loss-of-function variants actually protecting against the disease.Good
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