A new investigation presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), which is held in Berlin, Germany, reveals the factors that influence the progression rate of type diabetes2 (DT2), which can explain why it varies so much among people.
The research was conducted by Dr. Xuan Wang, the University of Duendee, in Duende, the United Kingdom and the University of Uppsala, in Uppsala, Sweden, and his colleagues.
Its objective was to identify the factors associated with the DT2 progression rate using data from the United Kingdom 'biobank';An ongoing health study of more than 500,000 British volunteers recruited from 2006 to 2010.
The United Kingdom Biobank population contains 25,290 diabetic patients, and the participants reported themselves if they had type 1 or type 2 diabetes. To exclude the cases of type 1 of the study, the team analyzed the genetic risk score of the participants andselected a cutting value that would guarantee that only 1 percent of the selected group had that form of the disease.
The researchers studied a selection of 6,215 white European patients with DT2 who had lived with the disease for no more than ten years.
From this group, they were able to choose two groups of 429 patients who could be combined in pairs for the time they had lived with DT2.
Each couple consisted of a member in which he progressed quickly that required insulin in ten years and a person whose disease could still be controlled by diet.The team then studied the clinical and biochemical factors that unite the two groups to discover the associations between them and the observed rate of disease progression.
Impact of the intrauterine environment on the progression of diabetes
The authors found that belonging to the rapid progression group was associated with a younger age at the time of diagnosis, a higher body mass index (BMI), a higher proportion of hip and waist, and were more likely to takeStatins and fibrates, medication used to control cholesterol.
When comparing the family stories of the two groups, the team also found that a diabetes story on the family maternal side was associated with a greater risk of rapid progression of the disease.This relationship was not found with the appearance of diabetes between brothers or on the paternal side of the family.
The authors conclude: "The greatest prevalence of maternal background of diabetes in the rapid progression group suggests an impact of the maternal intrauterine environment in the progression of diabetes in the offspring, which justifies a deeper investigation."