Association of polymorphisms at the ADIPOR1 regulatory region with type 2 diabetes and body mass index in a Brazilian population with European or African ancestry

Association studies between ADIPOR1 genetic variants and predisposition to type 2 diabetes (DM2) have provided contradictory results. We determined if two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP c.-8503G>A and SNP c.10225C>G) in regulatory regions of ADIPOR1 in 567 Brazilian individuals of European (EA; N = 443) or African (AfA; N = 124) ancestry from rural (quilombo remnants; N = 439) and urban (N = 567) areas. We detected a significant effect of ethnicity on the distribution of the allelic frequencies of both SNPs in these populations (EA: -8503A = 0.27; AfA: -8503A = 0.16; P = 0.001 and EA: 10225G = 0.35; AfA: 10225G = 0.51; P < 0.001). Neither of the polymorphisms were associated with DM2 in the case-control study in EA (SNP c.-8503G>A: DM2 group -8503A = 0.26; control group -8503A = 0.30; P = 0.14/SNP 10225C>G: DM2 group 10225G = 0.37; control group 10225G = 0.32; P = 0.40) and AfA populations (SNP c.-8503G>A: DM2 group -8503A = 0.16; control group -8503A = 0.15; P = 0.34/SNP 10225C>G: DM2 group 10225G = 0.51; control group 10225G = 0.52; P = 0.50). Similarly, none of the polymorphisms were associated with metabolic/anthropometric risk factors for DM2 in any of the three populations, except for HDL cholesterol, which was significantly higher in AfA heterozygotes (GC = 53.75 ± 17.26 mg/dL) than in homozygotes. We conclude that ADIPOR1 polymorphisms are unlikely to be major risk factors for DM2 or for metabolic/anthropometric measurements that represent risk factors for DM2 in populations of European and African ancestries.FAPESP 04/0185-5CEPIDHospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegr

Effect of polymorphisms of the MTHFR and APOE genes on susceptibility to diabetes and severity of diabetic retinopathy in Brazilian patients

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a highly prevalent complex genetic disorder. There has been a worldwide effort in the identification of susceptibility genes for DM and its complications, and the 5-10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and apolipoprotein-E (APOE) genes have been considered good candidate susceptibility genes to this condition. The objectives of the present study were to determine if the 677T MTHFR and epsilon2/epsilon3/epsilon4 APOE alleles are risk factors for DM and for severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR). A total of 248 individuals were studied: 107 healthy individuals and 141 diabetic patients (46 with type 1 diabetes and 95 with type 2 diabetes), who also had DR (81 with non-proliferative DR and 60 with proliferative DR). The polymorphisms were analyzed by PCR followed by digestion with restriction enzyme or the single-nucleotide primer extension method. No evidence of association between the 677TT genotype of MTHFR gene and DM [cases: TT = 10/95 (10.6%); controls: TT = 14/107 (13%)] or with severity of DR was observed [cases: TT = 5/60 (8.5%); controls: TT = 9/81 (11.1%); P > 0.05]. We also did not find evidence of an association between APOE alleles and proliferative DR (epsilon2, epsilon3 and epsilon4 in cases: 9, 76, and 15%, and in controls: 5, 88, and 12%, respectively) but the carriers of epsilon2 allele were more frequent among patients with type 2 DM and DR than in controls [cases: 15/95 (15.8%); controls: 7/107 (6.5%); P < 0.05]. Therefore, our results suggest that the epsilon2 allele/APOE might be a risk factor for diabetes in the Brazilian population