Variation in the CDKAL1 Gene Is Associated With the Titer of Antibodies to GAD
- Axel Haupt, MD,
- Martina Guthoff, MD,
- Baptist Gallwitz, MD,
- Hans-Ulrich Haring, MD and
- Andreas Fritsche, MD
- From the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetology, Vascular Medicine, Nephrology and Clinical Chemistry, Eberhard-Karls-University, Tuebingen, Germany
- Corresponding author: Andreas Fritsche, andreas.fritsche{at}med.uni-tuebingen.de
Genome-wide association studies have described new diabetes susceptibility genes including TCF7L2, CDKAL1, HHEX, SLC30A8, CDKN2A/B, and IGF2BP2 (1). Most of these novel risk loci are associated with impaired β-cell function (2). Impaired β-cell function due to autoimmune processes plays a role in the pathogenesis of type 1A diabetes and latent autoimmune diabetes in adults. Therefore, it is conceivable that some of the susceptibility genes may be related to autoimmunity and inflammation leading to β-cell dysfunction. This hypothesis was recently excluded for the variation in the TCF7L2 gene, which was not found to be associated with type 1 diabetes.
We investigated whether …
