diabetes mellitus

1028 Words3 Pages

Harpreet Singh

Introduction:

An astounding 347 million individuals (WHO-Danaei.G) are inflicted with Diabetes mellitus (DM), a type of metabolic disease that’s significantly influenced by hyperglycemia (causing individuals to generate high blood sugar) and can be characterized by the insufficient production or improper reaction to insulin. There are three different types of DM: Type 1, Type 2, and Gestational diabetes, all of which share common symptoms include polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst), and polyphagia (increased hunger) (Ahuja 1139). Generally, diabetes prevents the ingested glucose from entering the cells, ultimately depriving the body of its’ main source of energy.

Type 1 DM is insulin-dependent and associated with the acute onset in age, caused through the insufficient production or excretion of insulin within the blood stream. Type 1 is uncommon, affecting approximately 5 – 10% of the population but requiring them to encounter daily insulin therapy and is most commonly seen in patients under thirty. Supporting evidence indicates that type 1 is more susceptible to environmental factors than previously thought, with possible causes including infectious viruses (e.g. Mumps, Rubella, Meningitis) (Cambridge 2). Recent advancement in increased understanding of the genetic basis behind type 1 has allowed researchers to indicate essential linkage and associations of HLA gene variants to type 1. Through this epigenetic modification and environmental factors, they will able to help associate the process by which these events implicate the groundwork’s for type 1 DM.

Type 2 DM is considered non-insulin-dependent and contains the vast majority of all diabetics, approximately 90 – 95%, wit...

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...into food, beverages, and the environment (Welshons).

Another easily identifiable factor in increasing the onset of DM are the epigenetic risk factors. The genetic susceptibility, caused by the missing genomic information, can be accounted by additional variants like histone posttranslational modifications, which remove or rearrange the histones bound with the DNA. DNA methylation alters the methylation levels of INS gene promoters and has been discovered in patients with TD1 that altered methylation of histones upstream of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1. Noncoding RNAs give rise to altered expression of miRNAs in regulatory T cells of T1D.

Many of the signs of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are similar. Possible symptoms include polyuria, polydipsia, polyphagia, fatigue, blurred vision, weight loss in T1D, and tingling/pain within hands and feet of T2D patients.

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