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04
Feb 2020
Genetic test could identify children at highest risk of developing type 2 diabetes years before disease develops
For many years, an increased risk of type 2 diabetes was seen as the result of poor nutrition during pregnancy, evidenced by a low birth weight. However, although in recent years babies’ birth weights have been increasing, cases of the disease have continued to rise, leading to a search for alternative explanations.
The ability to detect early would help children to be steered away from lifestyle habits that could lead to full-blown type 2 diabetes.
Now, the EarlyBird study has found markers in DNA that mean certain children have an increased risk of developing the disease in the future. The study began in the early 2000s and followed 300 children for 15 years from the age of five to early adulthood, to investigate how their metabolisms changed during growth.
The results of the study, which have been published in the journal Diabetes Care, showed that the earliest signifiers to the disease were genetic factors rather than physiological ones. It identified that the first event leading to pre-diabetes was dysfunction of pancreatic beta-cells, regardless of body weight. These cells produce insulin, which is the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels.
Study leader Dr Francois-Pierre Martin, said “We show that beta-cell dysfunction is an early event in the onset of pre-diabetes in children and that this effect is bodyweight-independent.
“However, we also report in this study that subsequent weight gain during puberty aggravates the progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes.
“This stresses the importance of lifestyle and nutritional interventions in childhood to reduce the risks to develop diabetes.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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