Objective: Recent advances in type 2 diabetes genetics have culminated in the discovery and confirmation of multiple risk variants. Two important and largely unanswered questions are whether this information can be used to identify individuals most susceptible to the adverse consequences of sedentary behavior and to predict their response to lifestyle intervention; such evidence would be mechanistically informative and provide a rationale for targeting genetically susceptible subgroups of the population.
Research design and methods: Gene x physical activity interactions were assessed for 17 polymorphisms in a prospective population-based cohort of initially nondiabetic middle-aged adults. Outcomes were 1) impaired glucose regulation (IGR) versus normal glucose regulation determined with either fasting or 2-h plasma glucose concentrations (n = 16,003), 2) glucose intolerance (in mmol/l, n = 8,860), or 3) incident type 2 diabetes (n = 2,063 events).
Results: Tests of gene x physical activity interactions on IGR risk for 3 of the 17 polymorphisms were nominally statistically significant:CDKN2A/B rs10811661 (P(interaction) = 0.015), HNF1B rs4430796 (P(interaction) = 0.026), and PPARG rs1801282 (P(interaction) = 0.04). Consistent interactions were observed for the CDKN2A/B (P(interaction) = 0.013) and HNF1B (P(interaction) = 0.0009) variants on 2-h glucose concentrations. Where type 2 diabetes was the outcome, only one statistically significant interaction effect was observed, and this was for the HNF1B rs4430796 variant (P(interaction) = 0.0004). The interaction effects for HNF1B on IGR risk and incident diabetes remained significant after correction for multiple testing (P(interaction) = 0.015 and 0.0068, respectively).
Conclusions: Our observations suggest that the genetic predisposition to hyperglycemia is partially dependent on a person's lifestyle.