Abstract
Consistent evidence from both experimental and human studies indicates that Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex disease resulting from the interaction of genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. Nutrients and dietary patterns are important environmental factors to consider in the prevention, development and treatment of this disease. Nutritional genomics focuses on the interaction between bioactive food components and the genome and includes studies of nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics and epigenetic modifications caused by nutrients. There is evidence supporting the existence of nutrient-gene and T2DM interactions coming from animal studies and family-based intervention studies. Moreover, many case-control, cohort, cross-sectional cohort studies and clinical trials have identified relationships between individual genetic load, diet and T2DM. Some of these studies were on a large scale. In addition, studies with animal models and human observational studies, in different countries over periods of time, support a causative relationship between adverse nutritional conditions during in utero development, persistent epigenetic changes and T2DM. This review provides comprehensive information on the current state of nutrient-gene interactions and their role in T2DM pathogenesis, the relationship between individual genetic load and diet, and the importance of epigenetic factors in influencing gene expression and defining the individual risk of T2DM.
Highlights
Diabetes is considered to be one of the biggest global health burdens of the current century
All this makes it very complex to establish Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk values according to allelic variants, due to: (i) the existence of genetic variants that increase T2DM risk independently of the type of diet (ii) genetic variants related to diet that modify some glucose metabolism systems, such as fasting glucose levels and insulin resistance (IR), but do not modify the risk of T2DM (iii) genetic variants that present a greater risk of T2DM but this risk is modified depending on the type of diet (iv) genetic polymorphisms that modify risk according to other parameters such as ethnic class and obesity
T2DM is a multifactorial disease which arises from complicated interactions between the genetic makeup and environmental factors
Summary
Diabetes is considered to be one of the biggest global health burdens of the current century. The disease usually appears in adults, mostly due to an inappropriate lifestyle, T2DM is increasing in children and adolescents. A combination of genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors, such as diet, are responsible for the onset and development of T2DM [2]. Epigenetic marks might be influenced by environmental factors that have an impact on the risk of T2DM [4]. The nutrient-gene interactions, as well as the relationship between individual genetic load and diet play an important role in the pathophysiology of T2DM [5]. Since epigenetic variations may interact through diet to influence gene expression and define the individual risk of T2DM, we will illustrate the importance of epigenetic factors in explaining the missing heritability cause of T2DM
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