J. Vendrell et al., A TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR-BETA POLYMORPHISM ASSOCIATED WITH HYPERTRIGLYCERIDEMIA IN NON-INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES-MELLITUS, Metabolism, clinical and experimental, 44(6), 1995, pp. 691-694
Non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes mellitus is associated with s
ignificant abnormalities of lipoprotein metabolism. Control of glycemi
a rarely completely corrects the alterations in lipid metabolism, sugg
esting a participation of environmental and genetic factors. The obser
vation that tumor necrosis factor (TNF) can modulate triglyceride meta
bolism offers a new genetic candidate to be analyzed. Samples of DNA f
rom 91 control subjects and 61 diet-treated type II diabetic patients
were analyzed to determine the lipid profile and a possible associatio
n with TNF genetic polymorphisms. For TNF restriction fragment length
polymorphisms, we used the Nco I restriction enzyme and a TNF-alpha pr
obe obtaining two allelic bands at 10.5 and 5.5 kb. We found a signifi
cant association (P < .01) of the 10.5-kb homozygous genotype in type
II diabetic subjects with high triglyceride levels. Furthermore, these
patients showed significant differences in triglycerides as compared
with matched control subjects with the same genotype (P < .001). This
study provides support for considering the TNF locus as a susceptibili
ty genetic region in the hypertriglyceridemia of type II diabetes. Cop
yright (C) 1995 by W.B. Saunders Company