SUSCEPTIBILITY TO INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES-MELLITUS MAPS TO A 4.1 KB SEGMENT OF DNA SPANNING THE INSULIN GENE AND ASSOCIATED VNTR

Recent studies have demonstrated that a locus at 11p15.5 confers susce ptibility to insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). This locus ha s been shown to lie within a 19 kb region. We present a detailed seque nce comparison of the predominant haplotypes found in this region in a population of French Caucasian IDDM patients and controls. Identifica tion of polymorphisms both associated and unassociated with IDDM has a llowed us to define further the region of association to 4.1 kb. Ten p olymorphisms within this region are in strong linkage disequilibrium w ith each other and extend across the insulin gene locus and the variab le number tandem repeat (VNTR) situated immediately 5' to the insulin gene. These represent a set of candidate disease polymorphisms one or more of which may account for the susceptibility to IDDM.