Diabetes link to body clock gene
Defective versions of a “body clock” gene greatly increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, a study has shown.
The discovery provides new evidence of a link between the body’s sleep cycle, governed by the hormone melatonin, and the disease.
The new study focused on a gene called MT2 which codes for the molecular cell receptor that allows melatonin to work.
Carrying any of four rare mutations in the gene increased the risk of developing type 2 diabetes six times, the research showed.