THE MOLECULAR GENETICS OF TYPE 1 DIABETES

Abstract Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is a T cell-mediated autoimmune disease that cause destruction of pancreatic islet β- cells. Susceptibility to T1D is determined by interaction between several genetic loci and environmental factors. Alleles at the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus explain up to 50% of the familial clustering of T1D, but other loci are also contributed to T1D and there is a universal trial to understand their role in this complex disease. In addition, there is a consensus among epidemiologists that the worldwide incidence rate of type 1 diabetes has been rising in recent decades. The cause of this rise is unknown, but epidemiological studies suggest the involvement of environmental factors, and viral infections in particular. Finding new loci and the pathways in which the destruction of β-cells happen, can lead to possible diagnostic and therapeutic applications of these genetic findings. Also, determining the environmental factors causing T1D is useful, because we can eliminate them and trying to prevent the disease in susceptible individuals by this knowledge