Association study of human MTH1 gene polymorphisms with type 1 diabetes mellitus

Reactive oxygen species are considered to play a role in the development of diabetes mellitus and its complications. Human MTH1 (mutT homologue 1) has 8-oxo-7,8-dihydrodeoxyguanosine triphosphatase activity, which repairs oxidized forms of dGTP. This enzyme is known to have a thermolabile Met83 variant. We examined whether Val83Met polymorphism of human MTH1 gene is associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus. We recruited 156 type 1 diabetic patients (59 males and 97 females). The polymorphism was analyzed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with Nsi I. The Met/Met genotype at codon 83 was very rare in both control and patient groups. Val/Met genotype tended to be more frequent in the whole type 1 diabetic patients than in controls. When subjects were divided into subgroups according to gender, there were no differences in the genotype and allele frequencies between patients and controls in males. On the other hand, in female type 1 diabetic patients, the Val/Met genotype was more frequent than in female controls (corrected P = 0.102). The Met allele was significantly more frequent in female type 1 diabetic patients than in female controls (corrected P = 0.022). Our results suggested that the Met allele at codon 83 of MTH1 gene might be involved in the development of type 1 diabetes mellitus in the Japanese female population.