MATERNALLY INHERITED DIABETES AND DEAFNESS - A NEW DIABETES SUBTYPE

Diabetes mellitus is a common disease with many forms of clinical expr ession. In addition, the development of diabetic complications is not only dependent on glycaemic control but also on individual factors whi ch may be related to genetic heterogeneity. At present, multiple genet ic factors are being recognized as contributing to the development of diabetes or possibly modulating its clinical expression. The purpose o f this review is to give an overview of our current knowledge on a sub type of diabetes which is apparently caused by a single mutation in th e mitochondrial DNA.