Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies 8 new loci for type 2 diabetes in East Asians

We conducted a three-stage genetic study to identify susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes (T2D) in East Asian populations. The first stage meta-analysis of eight T2D genome-wide association studies (6,952 cases and 11,865 controls) was followed by a second stage in silico replication analysis (5,843 cases and 4,574 controls) and a stage 3 de novo replication analysis (12,284 cases and 13,172 controls). The combined analysis identified eight new T2D loci reaching genome-wide significance, which were mapped in or near GLIS3 , PEPD , FITM2-R3HDML-HNF4A , KCNK16 , MAEA , GCC1-PAX4 , PSMD6 and ZFAND3. GLIS3 , involved in pancreatic beta cell development and insulin gene expression 1 , 2 , is known for its association with fasting glucose levels 3 , 4 . The evidence of T2D association for PEPD 5 and HNF4A 6 , 7 has been detected in previous studies. KCNK16 may regulate glucose-dependent insulin secretion in the pancreas. These findings derived from East Asians provide new perspectives on the etiology of T2D.