Association of Glutathione-S-Transferase (GSTM1 and GSTT1) and FTO Gene Polymorphisms with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Cases in Northern India

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is growing in an epidemic manner across the world and India has the world’s largest number of diabetic subjects. The present study was carried out to investigate the association of glutathione-S-transferase (GSTM1, GSTT1) and fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene polymorphisms with T2DM patients and controls, and its role in increasing the susceptibility to T2DM. A total of 198 subjects (101 T2DM patients and 97 controls) participated in this study. GSTM1, GSTT1 and FTO gene polymorphisms in the patients and controls were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). We observed significant association of GSTM1 positive (p = 0.046) and GSTM1 null (p = 0.046) genotypes with T2DM, while no significant association was found with the FTO gene polymorphism in our study. It seems that the GSTM1 gene polymorphism can be a predictive marker for early identification of a population at risk of T2DM. The potential role of GST and FTO gene polymorphisms as a marker of susceptibility to T2DM needs further studies in a larger number of patients.