Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Thin-fat phenotype makes Indians high risk group to diabetes mellitus and coronary heart diseases

Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: Indians are at an increased risk of diabetes mellitus and coronary heart diseases due to their "thin-fat phenotype", which predicts higher insulin resistance compared to the Europeans.
According to CCMB senior scientist Dr GR Chandak, the three-day international symposium on dissecting the role of genes and environment in complex diseases from December 6 here will delve at the genetic basis and genetic susceptibility to complex disorders in  different populations.
Sedentary lifestyle and change in food habits, have added to the recent spurt of these diseases in Indians. Recent genome-wide association studies have identified a number of genes to be associated with complex diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases.
"However, the role of genetic variants and interaction with the environment in predicting susceptibility to the disease development is not understood. This is especially important in view of the fact that the largest number of diabetes patients in the world live not in Europe or the USA, but in India," he said.
The CCMB has taken up a major research to understand the genetic variation in the Indian subcontinent and in dissecting the role of genes and environment in susceptibility to complex diseases such as chronic pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases.
Tremendous genetic diversity and a variable phenotype in the Indian population provide a unique opportunity to understand the genetic variations in the Indian subcontinent, dissect the role of genes and environment in the manifestation of complex diseases for developing personalised medicine.
Pioneers working in the areas of epidemiology, molecular genetics and epigenetics of complex diseases from India, Europe and the USA are participating in the scientific sessions.

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