DNA Methylation and Type 2 Diabetes: Novel Biomarkers for Risk Assessment?

Diabetes is a severe threat to global health. Almost 500 million people live with diabetes worldwide. Most of them have type 2 diabetes (T2D). T2D patients are at risk of developing severe and life-threatening complications, leading to an increased need for medical care and reduced quality of life. Improved care for people with T2D is essential. Actions aiming at identifying undiagnosed diabetes and at preventing diabetes in those at high risk are needed as well. To this end, biomarker discovery and validation of risk assessment for T2D are critical. Alterations of DNA methylation have recently helped to better understand T2D pathophysiology by explaining differences among endophenotypes of diabetic patients in tissues. Recent evidence further suggests that variations of DNA methylation might contribute to the risk of T2D even more significantly than genetic variability and might represent a valuable tool to predict T2D risk. In this review, we focus on recent information on the contribution of DNA methylation to the risk and the pathogenesis of T2D. We discuss the limitations of these studies and provide evidence supporting the potential for clinical application of DNA methylation marks to predict the risk and progression of T2D.