FTO Gene rs9939609 is Potentially Associated with Diabetes Related Complications in T2DM Patients

FTO gene rs9939609, an obesity susceptible gene, has strong with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Studies have also established an association between the FTO gene rs9939609 and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This research investigated the association of this genetic variant with microvascular and macrovascular complications related to diabetes.

We performed a cross-sectional analysis involving 140 participants with T2DM and 70 healthy control subjects. The DNA samples were analyzed for the FTO gene variant rs9939609 using ARMS-PCR. FTO gene association with diabetes-related microvascular and macrovascular complications was assessed through multivariate logistic regression, with unadjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals. A p-value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The genotypic distribution of the FTO gene variant adhered to Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium in the study participants (p>0.05). The AA genotype exhibited a robust association with elevated BMI, HbA1C, SBP, DBP, TGs and decreased HDL-C levels relative to the AT and TT genotypes with (p=0.002). FTO genotype frequency increased from AA to AT to TT in both macrovascular (CVD) and microvascular complications (retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy). Moreover, risk allele(A) was also significantly contributed to CVD (p=0.001), retinopathy (p=0.004), nephropathy (p=0.001), and neuropathy (p=0.002). AA genotype of the FTO gene rs9939609 showed the tendency to increase the risk of CVD (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.07-1.70; p=0.04) and retinopathy (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.02-1.87; p=0.001) while no significant changes were recorded in diabetic nephropathy (OR,1.56; 95%CI,1.2-2.43; p=0.67) and neuropathy (OR, 2.49; 95%, 1.52-4.1; p=0.06).

Our data indicate that the FTO gene variant rs9939609 is linked to an elevated risk of both microvascular & macrovascular complications in individuals with T2DM.