Epigenetics of diabetes Type 2 have shown that miRNAs have pivotal roles in many different gene regulatory pathways. A subset of miRNAs has been shown to be involved in metabolic regulation of glucose homeostasis and in epigenetics of diabetes type 2. Pancreatic islet-specific miR-375 inhibits insulin secretion in mouse pancreatic β-cells by inhibiting the expression of the protein myotrophin. An overexpression of miR-375 can completely suppress glucose-induced insulin secretion, while inhibition of native miR-375 will increase insulin secretion. In another study, increasing the level of miR-9, a different miRNA, resulted in a severe defect in glucose-stimulated insulin release. This happens because miR-9 down-regulated the transcription
Epigenetics of diabetes Type 2 associated FTO gene, which has shown to increase susceptibility to both obesity and Type 2 Diabetes. When looked at further, it was shown to have increased methylation levels in a haplotype associated with Type 2 Diabetes. To find exactly which portion of the gene led to the higher levels of risk, one group of researchers performed a sliding window analysis. Using the information, they narrowed the search down to the 46 kb linkage disequilibrium block, and within that region found a 7.7 kb region in which methylation levels were abnormally high. Pyrosequencing found that this difference was due to single