A genetic variation of the transcription factor 7-like 2 gene is associated with risk of type 2 diabetes in the Japanese population

Abstract
It has been suggested that transcription factor 7-like 2 protein (TCF7L2) plays an important role in glucose metabolism by regulating the production level of glucagon-like peptide-1, a hormone which modifies glucose-dependent insulin secretion. Recently, variants of TCF7L2 gene were reported to confer an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in three different samples from European and European-origin populations. We studied whether the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TCF7L2 were associated with type 2 diabetes in samples from a Japanese population.