Association of common single-nucleotide polymorphism of HHEX with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex metabolic disease that occurs as a result of insulin resistance and low insulin production. T2DM involves many organ systems that include macro-vascular and micro-vascular complications. Several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and candidate gene studies have suggested a large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on several genes such as HHEX that were associated with T2DM susceptibility. The current study aims to look at the relationship between the risk of T2DM and the HHEX gene variant rs7923837. Methods In this case-control study genotyping of rs7923837 of the HHEX gene was performed using the PCR-RFLP and Sanger sequencing method. Results Frequencies of GG genotype of rs7923837 polymorphism of HHEX among subjects with and without diabetes mellitus were 33.77% and 25.47% respectively. Corresponding prevalence for the AG genotype was 51.08% and 64.15% among subjects with and without diabetes mellitus respectively. The differences were not statistically significant ( p = 0.08). Conclusion Our study revealed that polymorphisms rs7923837 of HHEX were not associated with T2DM.