Relapsing 6q24-related transient neonatal diabetes mellitus with insulin resistance: A case report

The overexpression of imprinted genes on chromosome 6q24 causes 6q24-related transient neonatal diabetes mellitus (6q24-TNDM). Most cases of 6q24-TNDM show transient diabetes mellitus (DM) during the neonatal period, followed by relapse after puberty. These two courses of DM are both characterized by insulin insufficiency. However, there has been no previously reported case of 6q24-TNDM with insulin resistance at relapse. We report the case of a 10-yr-old Japanese girl with relapsing 6q24-TNDM. In the neonatal period, she had hyperglycemia and was treated with insulin injection until 2 mo of age. After several years of remission of DM, her HbA1c level increased to 7.4% at 10 yr of age. Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) score was high at 6.2. After starting metformin therapy, her glycemic control improved along with normalization of HOMA-IR score. Using microsatellite marker analysis on the 6q24 region and array comparative genome hybridization, we diagnosed her with 6q24-TNDM due to paternally inherited duplication of 6q24. These data indicate that patients with 6q24-TNDM can develop relapsing DM with insulin resistance.