Perspectiues in Diabetes Comparative Genetics of Type 1 Diabetes and Autoimmune Disease Common Loci, Common Pathways?

Genome-scale analysis in type 1 diabetes has resulted in a number of non-major histocompatibility complex loci of varying levels of statistical significance. In no case has a specific gene been proven to be the source of genetic link-age at any candidate locus. Comparative analysis of the position of loci for type 1 diabetes with candidate loci hom other autoimmunefinflammatory diseases shows consid-erable overlap. This supports a hypothesis that the under-lying genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes may be shared with other clinically distinct autoimmune diseases such asl systemic lupus erythemastosus, multiple sclerosis, and Crohn's Disease. Diabetes 48:1353-1358,1999 T ype 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease thought to arise through a con~plex interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Like many autoim- mune diseases, type 1 diabetes is characterized by inunune disregulation that precedes overt clinical onset of the disease. These abnormalities include antibody disturbance