Why epigenetic changes can cause type 2 diabetes

Research from Lund University in Sweden shows that epigenetic changes can cause type 2 diabeteswhich offers new knowledge for the prevention and treatment of this disease and other derivatives.

Published in Nature Communications, study suggests that epigenetic changes could be a causal factor in the development of pathology, rather than simply occurring as a result of illness.

This new one investigation reinforces the theory that modification epigenetics can cause Type 2 diabetesand device now focuses on create strategies for disease prevention. We inherit genes from our parents and they rarely change.

However, changes epigeneticwhich are modifications with the potential to regulate the activation or deactivation of genes, as well as to affect the synthesis of specific proteins in cells, arise due to environmental and lifestyle factors that can affect their function.

“Our large new study confirms our previous findings from smaller studies and shows that epigenetic changes may contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes. In this study, we also identified new genes that influence disease development. “We hope that with the help of these results, we can develop methods that can be used to prevent type 2 diabetes,” explained Dr. Charlotte Ling, professor of diabetes and epigenetics at Lund University Diabetes Center (LUDC), who led the studies.

The researchers studied epigenetics in insulin-producing cells from donors and found 5,584 sites in the genome with changes which differed between 25 people with type 2 diabetes and 75 people without the disease.

The same epigenetic changes found in people with type 2 diabetes have also been found in people with high blood sugar, which increases the risk of developing the disease.

“Those of us who study epigenetics have long struggled to understand whether changes there cause type 2 diabetes. or if the changes occur after the disease has already developed. “Since we saw the same epigenetic changes in people with type 2 diabetes and in people at risk of the disease, we concluded that these changes may contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes,” said Tina Rönn, lead author and LUDC researcher.

The study identified 203 genes with differential expression in individuals with type 2 diabetes compared to the control group. Scientists have found out the RHOT1 gene showed epigenetic changes in people with type 2 diabetes and that it also played a key role in insulin secretion in insulin-producing cells. When they knocked out the expression of the RHOT1 gene in cells from donors without type 2 diabetes, insulin secretion decreased.

“When we examined the same type of cells in rats with diabetes, we found a lack of RHOT1, which confirms the importance of the gene for insulin secretion,” said Tina Rönn.

One of the goals of the research is to develop a blood biomarker that can predict who is at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The results obtained from insulin-producing cells in the pancreas were reflected in the blood of living people. They found epigenetic changes in the blood of a group of 540 people without the disease and linked them to the future development of type 2 diabetes in half of the individuals.

Factors such as unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle and aging increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and also affect our epigenetics. Thanks to a new study, scientists have identified new mechanisms that may allow the development of methods to help prevent type 2 diabetes.

“If we can develop an epigenetic biomarker, we will be able to identify individuals with epigenetic changes before they become ill. For example, these people can receive personalized lifestyle advice that can reduce their risk of disease, or we can develop methods that aim to correct the activity of certain genes through epigenetic editing,” concluded Charlotte Ling.