International Study Suggests Type 1 Diabetes May Be Two Distinct Diseases
A massive international study has found evidence suggesting that Type 1 diabetes may actually be two different diseases, rather than a single condition. The research, published in Diabetologia, focused on two genetic patterns, HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4, which are associated with a higher risk of Type 1 diabetes. While both patterns lead to the same end result of Type 1 diabetes, the early signs and underlying biological mechanisms appear to differ significantly between them. Researchers from the U.S. and UK conducted the first-ever genome-wide association study (GWAS) that separated Type 1 diabetes patients based on these two genetic signatures. The study involved 9,091 individuals with Type 1 diabetes and 14,157 control subjects. The findings indicated enough genetic differences between the HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 groups to suggest distinct subtypes of the disease. Specifically, the HLA-DR3 results pointed towards the involvement of mast cells, which are linked to allergies and inflammation, while the HLA-DR4 genet... 
