Genetic studies of polymorphisms in ten non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus candidate genes in Tamil Indians from Pondichery.

We report a study of 10 candidate genes presumably involved in diabetes or insulin resistance or obesity among Pondicherian Tamil Indians, an isolated population with a high prevalence of diabetes. Forty-nine families with at least two affected patients in the sibship (567 individuals) were selected and tested by PCR-RFLP techniques for reported mutations in 10 diabetes or obesity candidate genes: glucagon receptor, insulin receptor substrate 1, insulin receptor, human beta 3 adrenergic receptor, fatty acid binding protein 2, mitochondrial tRNA(Leu(UUR)), sulphonylurea receptor, human uncoupling protein and the glycogen-associated regulatory subunit of protein phosphatase-1. Glucokinase gene was also screened for mutations. No mutations were found in glucokinase, glucagon receptor and mitochondrial genes in any of the 49 probands. Frequencies of polymorphisms at other loci were similar to those reported in Caucasian populations, except for 4 of the loci at which a higher frequency of variants was observed: human beta 3 adrenergic receptor, human uncoupling type 1 protein, fatty acid binding protein 2 and the glycogen-associated regulatory subunit of protein phosphatase-1. However, no evidence of association between any of these gene variants and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) or quantitative traits related to NIDDM (including body mass index, waist/hip ratio, insulinaemia, glycaemia, triglycerides and total cholesterol) was found in our sample. These results suggest that none of these gene variants commonly found in the Pondicherian Tamil population of South India is a major NIDDM predisposing locus, although it cannot be excluded that they may contribute to the polygenic background of the metabolic syndrome in Pondichery.