Association of a genetic variant of the ZPR1 zinc finger gene with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Various loci and genes that confer susceptibility to coronary heart disease (CHD) have been identified in Caucasian populations by genome-wide association studies (GWASs). As type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is an important risk factor for CHD, we hypothesized that certain polymorphisms may contribute to the genetic susceptibility to CHD through affecting the susceptibility to type 2 DM. The purpose of the present study was to examine a possible association of type 2 DM in Japanese individuals with 29 polymorphisms identified as susceptibility loci for CHD by meta-analyses of the GWASs. The study subjects comprised of 3,757 individuals (1,444 subjects with type 2 DM and 2,313 controls). The polymorphism genotypes were determined by the multiplex bead-based Luminex assay, which combines the polymerase chain reaction and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes with suspension array technology. To compensate for multiple comparisons of genotypes, the criterion of a false discovery rate (FDR) ≤0.05 was adopted for testing the statistical significance of the association. The comparisons of allele frequencies by the χ2 test revealed that the rs964184 (C→G) of the ZPR1 zinc finger gene (ZPR1) was significantly associated (P=0.0017; FDR=0.050) with type 2 DM. Multivariable logistic regression analysis with adjustment for age, gender and body mass index revealed that rs964184 of ZPR1 was significantly associated (P=0.0012; odds ratio, 1.25; dominant model) with type 2 DM with the minor G allele representing a risk factor for this condition. Fasting plasma glucose levels (P=0.0076) and blood glycosylated hemoglobin contents (P=0.0132) significantly differed among ZPR1 genotypes with the G allele associated with increases in these parameters. ZPR1 may thus be a susceptibility locus for type 2 DM in Japanese individuals.