Association study of genetic polymorphisms of SLC2A10 gene and type 2 diabetes in the Taiwanese population

Aims/hypothesis: The gene encoding solute carrier family 2, facilitated glucose transporter, member 10 (SLC2A10, previously known as glucose transporter 10 [GLUT10]) is a promising candidate gene for type 2 diabetes since it is highly expressed in liver and pancreas and is located on human chromosome region 20q12-q13.1, a region previously shown to harbour type 2 diabetes susceptibility genes. We investigated whether the SLC2A10 gene could be a type 2 diabetes susceptibility gene in the Taiwanese population. Subjects and methods: Sequencing of SLC2A10 gene from 48 diabetic subjects detected short tandem repeat polymorphisms in the promoter region, but did not detect any other sequence variants or new single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) other than those already in the SNPper database (http://snpper.chip.org) (30 June 2005). Results: Using these genetic polymorphisms, we divided the SLC2A10 gene into four distinct linkage disequilibrium blocks and performed a case-control association study in a group of type 2 diabetes subjects (n=375) and normoglycaemic individuals (n=377). The HapD (A-G-T-C) haplotype in block 3, a rare haplotype, which consisted of four SNPs (rs3092412, rs2235491, rs2425904 and rs1059217), was modestly associated with type 2 diabetes with a haplotype score of -2.95567 (p=0.012 with the haplotype-specific test). Conclusions/interpretation: Our results suggest that SLC2A10 genetic variations do not appear to be major determinants for type 2 diabetes susceptibility in the Taiwanese population.