Docs zeroing in on desi diabetic gene - It Makes Indians Prone To High Blood Sugar Risk

Waking up at 6 am, 32-year-old Nischith S goes for a brisk walk. This is followed by a nutritious, high-protein breakfast. His meal comprises good quantities of fruits and vegetables. Before he is back home from work, Nischith works out regularly at the gym.
But what shocked him was when doctors told him that his giddiness during the day, hunger pangs and frequent urge to urinate were early signs of a disorder — diabetes mellitus. “I wonder how it hit me. I have an active lifestyle and my body mass index is normal. Is this because my father also had diabetes?”
Diabetologists admit there are no clear answers to these questions yet, but they are close to identifying a set of genes that make Indians genetically more predisposed to the disease.
“We don’t yet know what percentage of diabetes is due to genetic factors or how much of a role a rapidly changing lifestyle and environment plays. But with growing incidence, we see genes play a vital role,” said Madras Diabetes Research Foundation chairman Dr V Mohan. “It’s what we call the Asian Indian Phenotype.”
At a recent workshop on ‘Techniques in genomics in relation to diabetes and related disorders’, Dr Mohan presented several research papers published in renowned medical journals to show the lack of genes essential to prevent blood sugar among Indians and the presence of one that causes central obesity unique only to Indians.
“It explains why India is the world diabetic capital, why every Indian is at risk of inheriting the disorder much earlier than their counterparts abroad,” Mohan said.
“Our studies have shown that some genes which seem to protect Europeans from diabetes and insulin resistance do not appear to protect Indians. Another new genetic finding is that a gene associated with diabetes and central obesity is found only in Indians,” he said.
Indians are also more prone to heart disease because they have low levels of good cholesterol (HDL) and higher serum triglyceride levels. “We have recently found that a variant in Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL) gene is associated with higher triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol levels in Indians,” he said.

Source : The Times of India, Mumbai, 13th Jan 2009

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