PHFI

Indians are at high risk of diabetes, which is attributed to increased central adiposity. In Europeans, nine common genes have been replicated for an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, including the FTO gene, which also increases the risk of obesity. This study proposes to examine the FTO and other risk genes (total of 59 SNPs related to cardio-metabolic diseases) to evaluate whether these genes have similar effects in Indians and whether migration, as a major environmental exposure, results in differential phenotypic expression of obesity and diabetes in people with similar genetic risk genes. Highly phenotyped data from the Indian Migration Study are being used for the following objectives: a) to study the prevalence of likely risk genes in the different regions of India, representing its ethnic diversity; b) to examine associations between these genes with obesity and diabetes phenotypes in migrant and non-migrant people; c) to examine biological and behavioural mechanisms by which genetic susceptibility operates to produce obesity and diabetes; and d) to establish a DNA and phenotypic database for collaborative use in the future. In addition to scientific outputs this research will produce a DNA databank with wide representation of India’s population which will be of value to scientists for discovery of genetic variation in a wide range of phenotypes relating to cardiovascular disease. This study is being carried out in collaboration with the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.