A comparative study of over 8000 people with Type 2 diabetes with that of almost 40,000 people without the condition at 2.5 million locations across the genome was done by the conglomerate of researchers from across the UK, Europe, the USA and Canada.

The genetic variations were then checked and it was found in another group of over 34,000 people with diabetes and almost 60,000 controls.

This research brought out the total number of genetic regions known to be associated with Type 2 diabetes to 38.

The signals recognized provided imperative clues to the biological basis of type 2 diabetes. The dare would be to turn these genetic findings into improved ways of treating and avoiding the situation said Professor Mark McCarthy from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, who led the conglomerate.

Some of the genes that were identified in this study were implicated in beta cells, which are instituted in the pancreas and produce insulin. In Type 2 diabetes, the body does not react to insulin as it should.

"One important theme is that several of the genes seem to be important in controlling the number of pancreatic beta cells that an individual has. This helps settle a long-standing controversy about the role of beta-cell numbers in Type 2 diabetes risk, and points to the importance of developing therapies that are able to preserve or restore depleted numbers of beta cells”, stated Professor McCarthy.

The University of Oxford constituent of this research was partly-funded by the Wellcome Trust.