Endocrine Abstracts

Background and Aim: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disease resulting from the complex interaction among multiple genes, environmental factors and the immune system. Genome-wide association studies identified ERBB3 (Erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 3) gene as a main susceptibility locus for T1DM. This gene encodes a member of the family of intracellular receptors of protein tyrosine kinases, which activates multiple signaling pathways including PI3K-Ak...

Introduction: Polymorphisms in genes that encode proteins of the innate immune system, such as the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), could affect the immune response as well as the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Activated TLR4 induces expression of a spectrum of proinflammatory cytokines, which have been implicated in insulin resistance. Some studies have reported associations of the TLR4 Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile polymorphisms with T2DM. However, ot...