GENETICS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN TYPE 2 DIABETES

这个子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和调查员(PI)可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可能会出现在其他CRISE条目中。列出的机构是针对中心的，而不一定是针对调查员的机构。据估计，280万非裔美国人患有糖尿病，约占所有非裔美国人的13%。平均而言，非洲裔美国人患糖尿病的可能性是同龄高加索美国人的两倍。造成这种差异的原因是什么，如何才能扭转这一流行病？有令人信服的证据表明，基因对糖尿病风险有重大贡献。我们的方法是确定患有2型糖尿病的非裔美国人家庭，以便我们可以揭示导致疾病易感性的关键遗传因素。最近完成了对250多个患有糖尿病的非裔美国家庭的整个人类基因组的扫描，我们发现了一个似乎含有糖尿病易感基因的区域。我们现在可以深入研究6号染色体的这一区域。我们将首先研究可能与糖尿病有关的已知基因，但可能需要深入探索该区域，以定位和鉴定一个新的糖尿病致病基因。为了评估这些基因和这个区域对糖尿病风险的影响，我们目前正在招募更多的非洲裔糖尿病患者和人群中的非裔美国人作为对照。在非裔美国人群体中识别导致糖尿病的基因将是制定预防策略和设计新疗法的第一步。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. It is estimated that 2.8 million African Americans have diabetes, which represents approximately 13% of all African Americans. On average, an African American individual is twice as likely to have diabetes as a Caucasian American of the same age. What are the reasons for this disparity, and how can the epidemic be reversed? There is compelling evidence for a significant genetic contribution to diabetes risk. Our approach has been to identify African American families with type 2 diabetes so that we may uncover the key inherited factors that contribute to disease susceptibility. With a scan of the entire human genome recently completed in over 250 African American families with diabetes, we have found one region that appears to harbor a diabetes-susceptibility gene. We are now in a position to hone in on this region of chromosome 6. We will first investigate known genes that may be involved in diabetes, but will likely need to explore the region in depth to locate and identify a novel diabetogenic gene. To evaluate the influence of these genes and this region on diabetes risk, we are currently recuiting additional African American patients with diabetes and African American individuals from the population to act as controls. The identification of genes contributing to diabetes in the African American population will be the first step toward developing prevention strategies and designing novel therapies.