T2D-Db: An integrated platform to study the molecular basis of Type 2 diabetes

Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a non insulin dependent, complex trait disease that develops due to genetic predisposition and environmental factors. The advanced stage in type 2 diabetes mellitus leads to several micro and macro vascular complications like nephropathy, neuropathy, retinopathy, heart related problems etc. Studies performed on the genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology of this disease to understand the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus has led to the generation of a surfeit of data on candidate genes and related aspects. The research is highly progressive towards defining the exact etiology of this disease. Results: T2D-Db (Type 2 diabetes Database) is a comprehensive web resource, which provides integrated and curated information on almost all known molecular components involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the three widely studied mammals namely human, mouse and rat. Information on candidate genes, SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) in candidate genes or candidate regions, genome wide association studies (GWA), tissue specific gene expression patterns, EST (Expressed Sequence Tag) data, expression information from microarray data, pathways, protein-protein interactions and disease associated risk factors or complications have been structured in this on line resource. Conclusion: Information available in T2D-Db provides an integrated platform for the better molecular level understanding of type 2 diabetes mellitus and its pathogenesis. Importantly, the resource facilitates graphical presentation of the gene/genome wide map of SNP markers and protein-protein interaction networks, besides providing the heat map diagram of the selected gene(s) in an organism across microarray expression experiments from either single or multiple studies. These features aid to the data interpretation in an integrative way. T2D-Db is to our knowledge the first publicly available resource that can cater to the needs of researchers working on different aspects of type 2 diabetes mellitus.