Scientists Link Type 1 Diabetes With Coeliac Disease

Wed, 17 Aug 2011

A new study has revealed an association between type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease, a food intolerance disorder.

The UK-based research, which appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that both conditions share a common genetic origin, which suggests they may also be brought on by similar environmental factors.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry claim this raises the possibility that the protein gluten, already known to cause coeliac disease, may also trigger the development of type 1 diabetes.

The researchers analysed nearly 20,000 tissue samples in search of genetic similarities between the two conditions.

They identified seven shared chromosome regions which are thought to regulate the mechanisms that cause the body’s own immune system to attack both the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas (type 1 diabetes ) and the small intestine (coeliac disease).

But they stressed that further research was needed to pinpoint how genetic and environmental factors combine to trigger the conditions.

Commenting on the findings, Karen Addington, of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which helped fund the study, said: "These studies demonstrate that type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease share far greater genetic overlap than had been appreciated."

"This helps explain the high prevalence of both conditions occurring simultaneously in an individual and may provide new avenues for understanding the cause and mechanisms of both conditions."

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