Epigenetic factors associated with Type 2 Diabetes.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Epigenetic factors associated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
IRAS ID
128954
Contact name
Nagaraj Sharanegouda Malipatil
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Research summary
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (Diabetes) is a long-term condition, which affects many parts of the body. It is a growing problem in the UK, which is costly to the NHS. People who develop diabetes often start by having a condition called Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), which refers to blood glucose levels being higher than normal but not high enough to classed as diabetes. So IGT is a state of pre-diabetes, which may be present for a number of years before the actual diagnosis of diabetes is made.
Diet and exercise regimes have been proven to be capable of reversing IGT back to a level of healthy blood glucose (sugar). These are helpful in preventing the onset of diabetes and its complications like angina, heart attack, stroke, kidney disease and eye disease than can occur in the longer term.
Individuals with IGT in Salford are referred by their GP to a community based health service programme called the Care Call. This is a telephone support service. In the Care Call programme individuals with IGT are given advice, by telephone, on healthy diets and encouraged to take up regular exercise. Their progress is monitored overtime. The focus of our research is to investigate the effects of regular exercise, healthy diet and weight loss on the way genes that contribute to risk of the development of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, are expressed. We are interested in epigenetic changes, which are genetic factors that regulate how genes work, that can be altered by diet and exercise and which can then affect gene expression. These epigenetic changes do not alter the DNA but can still affect how genes work.
We need individuals with IGT to compare with individuals without IGT to be able to identify epigenetic changes that are commoner in individuals that have IGT and that progress to Type 2 diabetes.
We want to look at the epigenetic changes that occur in genes within both the blood and fat cells (adipose tissue). Fat tissue plays an important role in causing IGT and diabetes, so studying epigenetic factors in fat cells can give important insight into understanding IGT and the development of diabetes.
If we understand how individuals with and without IGT differ in their epigenetic factors, this will aid us, in the future, in identifying individuals at risk of developing diabetes early.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/1196
Date of REC Opinion
12 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion