Soo Heon Kwak

Knowledge regarding the genetic risk loci for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is still limited. In this study, we performed a two-stage genome-wide association analysis in Korean women. In the stage 1 genome scan, 468 women with GDM and 1,242 nondiabetic control women were compared using 2.19 million genotyped or imputed markers. We selected 11 loci for further genotyping in stage 2 samples of 931 case and 783 control subjects. The joint effect of stage 1 plus stage 2 studies was analyzed by

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is a common complex metabolic disorder that has a strong genetic predisposition. During the past decade, progress in genetic association studies has enabled the identification of at least 75 independent genetic loci for T2DM, thus allowing a better understanding of the genetic architecture of T2DM. International collaborations and large-scale meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies have made these achievements possible. However, whether the identified common varia

CONTEXT: Women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are at increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2DM). However, the time to progression to diabetes differs individually. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the clinical and genetic risk factors that are associated with T2DM early or late post partum after GDM pregnancy. DESIGN AND SETTING: This was a hospital-based prospective cohort study that enrolled GDM women. PATIENTS AND OUTCOME MEASURES: A total of 843 GDM subjects were followed for

The oversupply of calories and sedentary lifestyle has resulted in a rapid increase of diabetes prevalence worldwide. During the past two decades, lines of evidence suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction plays a key role in the pathophysiology of diabetes. Mitochondria are vital to most of the eukaryotic cells as they provide energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate by oxidative phosphorylation. In addition, mitochondrial function is an integral part of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion i

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of recurrent gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and to find risk factors that can predict the recurrence of GDM in Korean women with previous GDM. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We evaluated women who had GDM in an index pregnancy (1993-2001) and a subsequent pregnancy by 2003. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed during the index pregnancy and 2 months postpartum. The recurrence rate of GDM was assessed among 111

CONTEXT: There is a growing body of evidence that epigenetic changes including DNA methylation influence the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and its microvascular complications. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a methylome-wide association study (MWAS) to identify differentially methylated sites (DMSs) of T2D and diabetic kidney disease (DKD) in a Korean population. METHODS: We performed an MWAS in 232 participants with T2D and 197 nondiabetic controls with the Illumina EPIC bead chip using peripheral bloo

Serotonin is involved in appetite regulation and energy homeostasis. Recently, it has been reported that 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 2B (Htr2b) and tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (Tph1) play major role in β-cell proliferation in mouse during pregnancy. We investigated the genetic association of HTR2B and TPH1 with risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and measures of obesity, in 869 Korean GDM women and carefully selected 632 nondiabetic control subjects. Six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SN

We investigated ethnicity-specific exonic variants of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and its related clinical phenotypes in an East Asian population. We performed whole-exome sequencing in 917 T2D case and control subjects, and the findings were validated by exome array genotyping in 3,026 participants. In silico replication was conducted for seven nonsynonymous variants in an additional 13,122 participants. Single-variant and gene-based association tests for T2D were analyzed. A total of 728,838 variant

PURPOSE: Monogenic diabetes is a specific type of diabetes in which precision medicine could be applied. In this study, we used targeted panel sequencing to investigate pathogenic variants in Korean patients with clinically suspected monogenic diabetes. METHODS: The eligibility criteria for inclusion were patients with nontype 1 diabetes with age at onset ≤30 years and body mass index (BMI) ≤30 kg/m2. Among the 2090 patients with nontype 1 diabetes, 109 had suspected monogenic diabetes and under

Ethnically specific data on genetic variation are crucial for understanding human biology and for clinical interpretation of variant pathogenicity. We analyzed data obtained by deep sequencing 1303 Korean whole exomes; the data were generated by three independent whole exome sequencing projects (named the KOEX study). The primary focus of this study was to comprehensively analyze the variant statistics, investigate secondary findings that may have clinical actionability, and identify loci that s

Genetic factors are thought to be an important determinant of thyroid function and autoimmunity. However, there are limited data on genetic variants in Asians. In this study, we performed a genome-wide association study on plasma thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4) concentration and anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibody positivity in 4238 Korean subjects. In the Stage 1 genome scan, 3396 participants from the Ansung cohort were investigated using 1.42 million genotyp

BACKGROUND: Recent genome-wide association studies in East Asians have identified polymorphisms in KCNQ1 as new type 2 diabetes risk variants. The aim of this study was to investigate whether variants in KCNQ1 are associated with development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and measures of oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) at the time of diagnosis of GDM. METHODS: Three candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs2074196, rs2237892, and rs2237895) were genotyped in 869 Korean GDM women a

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a complex metabolic disorder of pregnancy that is suspected to have a strong genetic predisposition. It is associated with poor perinatal outcome, and both GDM women and their offspring are at increased risk of future development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). During the past several years, there has been progress in finding the genetic risk factors of GDM in relation to T2DM. Some of the genetic variants that were proven to be significantly associated