Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have mapped the whole methylome of pancreatic islets, which are responsible for insulin production.
Only about 1.5 percent of the methylome, which is vital for the activation or inactivation of genes in cells, had been mapped out in recent years.
For the first time, researchers at Lund University were able to map out the entire methylome to measure individual gene function and expression in pancreatic islets.
"It can be compared to the first comprehensive analysis of the entire genome -- the genes of an individual," Professor Charlotte Ling, lead author of the study, said in a press release.
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For the study, which covered 24 million areas on DNA, researchers analyzed cells from healthy individuals and cells from people with type 2 diabetes and 25,820 areas in the genome with altered DNA methylation. These alternations could be linked to insulin production.
In identified risk genes for type 2 diabetes, there is an increased amount of methylation and a reduced amount of gene expression. This led researchers to examine whether these differentially methylated genes in type 2 diabetes patients affect insulin production.
"Because the insulin secretion deteriorated when we changed the expression of these genes in beta cells, we see a correlation between the amount of methylation and an impaired function of pancreatic islets," Ling said.
Researchers found that the PDX1 gene, which plays a vital role in converting stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells, is mutated in a rare form of diabetes called MODY4. Results also showed that diabetes had a strong role in the methylation of PDX1 in insulin-producing cells.
"The study confirms our previous assumptions that epigenetic changes may contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes," Ling said.
The study was published in Diabetes.
