Association of n acetyl transferase 2 gene polymorphisms with type 1 diabetes

Epidemiological studies suggested an association between dietary nitrates/nitrites and Type 1 diabetes (T1DM), association mediated by the N Acetyl Transferases. Early data indicated a role of N Acetyl Transferase 2 (NAT2) gene in T1DM susceptibility. The aim of our study was to assess the contribution of NAT2 polymorphisms to T1DM genetic susceptibility. For this we typed NAT2 341 T/C, 590 G/A, 803 A/G and 857 G/A polymorphisms by Sequence Specific Primer PCR (SSP- PCR) in 204 Romanian T1DM families. Subsequently we typed the 590 G/A and 803 A/G polymorphisms on another 219 Romanian and 1857 Caucasian families, using Taqman®. Allele transmission to diabetics and unaffected siblings was studied using the Transmission Disequilibrium Test (TDT). We initially found an increased transmission of 590G (60.13%, pTDT=0.0075) and 803G (54.89%, pTDT=0.1) alleles to diabetics. The genotyping of the extra 2076 families did not confirm this association. Thus, on the total of 2280 families, the transmission of 590G allele was 50.55% (pTDT=0.59) while that of 803G allele was 49.25% (pTDT = 0.43). In conclusion, our results indicate that there is no effect of NAT2 gene polymorphisms on T1DM susceptibility.