Genetic Determinants of Type 2 Diabetes in Asians

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has become a major health problem throughout the world and the epidemic is particularly severe in Asian countries. Compared with European populations, Asians tend to develop diabetes at a younger age and at much higher incidence rates given the same amount of weight gain. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over 70 loci associated with T2D. Although the majority of GWAS results were conducted in populations of European ancestry, recent GWAS in Asians have made important contributions to the identification of T2D susceptibility loci. These studies not only confirmed T2D susceptibility loci initially identified in European populations, but also identified novel susceptibility loci that provide new insights into the pathophysiology of diseases. In this article, we review GWAS results of T2D conducted in East and South Asians and compare them to those of European populations. Currently identified T2D genetic variants do not appear to explain the phenomenon that Asians are more susceptible to T2D than European populations, suggesting further studies in Asian populations are needed.