Diabetes management goal of diabetes care, although recent research suggests that the complications of diabetes may be caused by genetic factors or, in type 1 diabetics, by the continuing effects of the autoimmune disease which first caused the pancreas to lose its insulin-producing ability. Because blood sugar levels fluctuate throughout the day and glucose records are imperfect indicators of these changes, the percentage of hemoglobin which is glycosylated is used as a proxy measure of long-term glycemic control in research trials and clinical care of people with diabetes. This test, the hemoglobin A1c or glycosylated hemoglobin reflects average glucoses over the preceding
Epigenetics of diabetes Type 2 small methylation differences at isolated CpG sites have large differences in gene-expression levels On a genome wide scale studies have proven that hypomethylation in genes known to be associated with type 2 diabetes has been associated with an increase in susceptibility for the disease. CpG sites in particular display a small but significant case of hypomethylation consistently.The odds of belonging to the Type 2 Diabetes group increased by 6.1% for every 1% decrease in methylation based on microarray-based assay. These observed methylation differences are capable of producing or indicating real expression differences, which lead to the observed enhanced disease risk.