Brief report
Transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene polymorphism rs7903146 is associated with stroke in type 2 diabetes patients with long disease duration

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2013.12.051Get rights and content

Abstract

Associations between TCF7L2 SNP and diabetic complications and diabetes-related factors were investigated. Subjects with rs7903146 variant had significantly higher prevalence of stroke (24.1% vs. 11.1%; P = 0.039) among subjects exhibiting a long disease duration (≥10 years). In conclusion, the TCF7L2 SNP variant may confer a higher risk of stroke in diabetic patients.

Introduction

Common variants in transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene are strongly associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) in all of the main ethnic groups [1]. Among the candidate variants within the TCF7L2 gene, SNP rs7903146 in intron 3 has been postulated to be associated with a greater risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), coronary artery disease [3], [4], nephropathy [5], retinopathy [6] and neuropathy [7].

For these reasons, the aim of the present study was to investigate the association of the rs7903146 SNP in the TCF7L2 gene with diabetic complications and its related phenotypes.

Section snippets

Subjects

A total of 810 unrelated T2D Korean patients from the Endocrinology clinic of Chungbuk National University Hospital were studied. Diabetes was diagnosed according to WHO criteria [8]. Patients with age at diagnosis of ≥30 years and known duration of ≥5 years were included. All patients underwent a thorough medical history and biochemical tests. Diabetic retinopathy was assessed by trained ophthalmologists and classified by International Clinical Retinopathy Severity Scale: (1) no apparent

Results

The baseline characteristics of the 810 studied subjects are shown in Table 1. The TCF7L2 SNP rs7903146 was rare among Korean diabetic subjects. There were 64 (7.8%) heterozygotes and 2 (0.2%) variant homozygotes. No significant difference in anthropometric and biochemical parameters was observed between TCF7L2 SNP rs7903146 genotype groups.

When all subjects were analyzed, the prevalence of diabetic complications was not significantly different between subjects without the TCF7L2 variant T (CC

Discussion

In the present study, we demonstrated for the first time that the rs7903146 SNP in TCF7L2 was associated with risk of stroke among diabetic subjects with a long disease duration. From our analysis, we postulate that the diabetic patients in this long duration category with this TCF7L2 variant may result in a lower capacity to secrete insulin and/or promote higher insulin resistance as previously reported [9], [10]. This would lead to an acceleration of the diabetic complications in these

Conflicts of interest

All authors state that they have no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a research grant of Chungbuk National University in 2011. The biospecimens for this study were provided by the Chungbuk National University Hospital, a member of the National Biobank of Korea, which is supported by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. All samples derived from the National Biobank of Korea were obtained with informed consent under institutional review board-approved protocols.

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