Assenza di correlazione statistica tra eterodimeri diabetogeni HLA-DQ e diabete di tipo 2: Analisi familiare.

Type 2 diabetes is a multifactorial disease with a polygenic inheritance and environmental factors contributing to its clinical expression. The search for the genetic determinants of type 2 diabetes has become possible by comparing in groups of patients and healthy controls from various populations the frequency of the different alleles of polymorphic markers of various candidate genes. Among them, unlike in type 1 diabetes, the role of specific HLA class II genes is not clear. We studied 8 families with high incidence of type 2 diabetes in which at least two probands were affected by the disease. The therapy consisted in a specific diet and the intake of hypoglicemic drugs. Amongst the 8 families 40 subjects were selected. Of these, 5 males and 19 females were affected by type 2 diabetes with no prevalence of type 1 diabetes. HLA-DQA1 and DQB1 alleles were determined with 52 healthy controls by PCRSSO and PCR-SSP techniques respectively. None of their alleles was associated to either susceptibility or protection. In conclusion, unlike in type 1 diabetes there was no statistically significant correlation between susceptible a-ß DQ eterodimers and the type 2 diabetes status.