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 secretion. PGC-1α can modulate glucose-mediated insulin secretion in human islets, most likely through an effect on ATP production. In human type 2 diabetic islets, reduced PPARGC1A mRNA levels were associated with impaired glucose-mediated insulin secretion. It was suggested that DNA methylation was the mechanism through which the PPARGC1A gene was turned down. In a different study where transcriptional changes due to a risk factors for diabetes, were examined, changes in the methylation patterns of the PPARGC1A gene were also found. In the study done on physical inactivity, where subjects were required to have a sustained bed-rest of 10 days and