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Publication Information

PubMed ID
Public Release Type
Journal
Publication Year
2012
Affiliation
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation/Wellcome Trust Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Department of Medical Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. joanna.howson@cimr.cam.ac.uk
Authors
Akolkar B, Concannon P, Cooper JD, Eisenbarth GS, Erlich HA, Howson JM, Julier C, Morahan G, Nerup J, Nierras C, Pociot F, Rewers M, Rich SS, She JX, Smyth DJ, Stevens H, Todd JA, Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium, Walker NM
Studies
Citation
Howson JM, Cooper JD, Smyth DJ, Walker NM, Stevens H, She JX, Eisenbarth GS, Rewers M, Todd JA, Akolkar B, Concannon P, Erlich HA, Julier C, Morahan G, Nerup J, Nierras C, Pociot F, Rich SS, Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium. Evidence of gene-gene interaction and age-at-diagnosis effects in type 1 diabetes. Diabetes 2012 Nov;61(11):3012-7. Epub 2012 Aug 13.

Abstract

The common genetic loci that independently influence the risk of type 1 diabetes have largely been determined. Their interactions with age-at-diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, sex, or the major susceptibility locus, HLA class II, remain mostly unexplored. A large collection of more than 14,866 type 1 diabetes samples (6,750 British diabetic individuals and 8,116 affected family samples of European descent) were genotyped at 38 confirmed type 1 diabetes-associated non-HLA regions and used to test for interaction of association with age-at-diagnosis, sex, and HLA class II genotypes using regression models. The alleles that confer susceptibility to type 1 diabetes at interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL2/4q27 (rs2069763) and renalase, FAD-dependent amine oxidase (RNLS)/10q23.31 (rs10509540), were associated with a lower age-at-diagnosis (P = 4.6 × 10⁻⁶ and 2.5 × 10⁻⁵, respectively). For both loci, individuals carrying the susceptible homozygous genotype were, on average, 7.2 months younger at diagnosis than those carrying the protective homozygous genotypes. In addition to protein tyrosine phosphatase nonreceptor type 22 (PTPN22), evidence of statistical interaction between HLA class II genotypes and rs3087243 at cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4)/2q33.2 was obtained (P = 7.90 × 10⁻⁵). No evidence of differential risk by sex was obtained at any loci (P ≥ 0.01). Statistical interaction effects can be detected in type 1 diabetes although they provide a relatively small contribution to our understanding of the familial clustering of the disease.