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–Below is the original text for the article “Diabetes, Low Birth Weight Have Common Genetic Variant”
In the past, the correlation between low birth weight and the development of Type 2 diabetes later in life was attributed to malnutrition during pregnancy. However, researchers at the Technische Universitat Munchen and Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen say gene variants that impact insulin metabolism can also have an effect on birth weight, according to an article published by ScienceDaily.
The researchers looked at data of 729 children of mothers with Type 1 diabetes. Children of people with diabetes have a higher risk of diabetes than people who have no familial connection. They examined three gene regions that are known to be more likely to contain alternative genes linked to diabetes and reduced insulin production. The examined these regions to identify a possible link to birth weight.
They found that there was a significant association between two gene variations in HHEX-IDE region related to low birth rate. Researchers say this shows that genetics plays a bigger role than nutrition in the disease. However, when examining two other regions (CDKAL1 and SLC30A8), researchers found no correlation to birth weight. Researchers say they need to examine a larger sample of patients in order to draw any positive conclusions from the lack of markers in the last two groups.
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