Kido Yoshiaki
1Division of Metabolism and Disease, Department of Biophysics, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe, Japan.
2Division of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
Diabetol Int. 2016 Dec 16;8(1):7-13. doi: 10.1007/s13340-016-0299-2. eCollection 2017 Mar.
Type 2 diabetes is a typical multifactorial disease, but the causes can largely be divided into genetic and environmental factors. In recent years, focus has shifted to the interaction between these factors (i.e., gene-environment interactions). It has become widely known that changes in the intrauterine environment such as intrauterine growth restriction result in gene expression changes in various tissues, which ultimately lead to the onset of diabetes. Epigenetic modification is considered to be a particularly important mechanism in these effects, as it is easily affected by environmental changes that occur during the fetal and neonatal periods. Moreover, recent reports have revealed that epigenetic modifications are passed down through generations. Although genome-wide association studies have identified many type 2 diabetes susceptibility genes, these genes do not pose a significantly high risk when isolated as single factors. In particular, it has been suggested that the interaction of the or genes with environmental factors increases the incidence of diabetes. These findings suggest that detailed analyses of individual gene-environment interactions hold promise for gaining new insight into the mechanisms and risk factors contributing to type 2 diabetes, with application to personalized diagnoses and treatments. We look forward to future developments in this regard.
2型糖尿病是一种典型的多因素疾病，但其病因在很大程度上可分为遗传因素和环境因素。近年来，重点已转向这些因素之间的相互作用（即基因-环境相互作用）。众所周知，诸如宫内生长受限等宫内环境变化会导致各种组织中的基因表达发生变化，最终导致糖尿病的发病。表观遗传修饰被认为是这些影响中特别重要的机制，因为它很容易受到胎儿期和新生儿期发生的环境变化的影响。此外，最近的报告显示表观遗传修饰会代代相传。尽管全基因组关联研究已经确定了许多2型糖尿病易感基因，但这些基因单独作为单一因素时，引发糖尿病的风险并不显著高。特别是，有人提出某些基因与环境因素的相互作用会增加糖尿病的发病率。这些发现表明，对个体基因-环境相互作用进行详细分析有望为深入了解2型糖尿病的发病机制和风险因素带来新的见解，并应用于个性化诊断和治疗。我们期待这方面未来的发展。
