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Open chromatin and diabetes risk

A new study has identified a large number of open chromatin regions harboring active regulatory elements in human pancreatic islets. A type 2 diabetes–associated SNP in TCF7L2 was found to be located in a region of allele-specific open chromatin and shows allele-specific enhancer activity, suggesting a potential mechanism for this disease association.

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Figure 1: Model for the chromatin state and mechanism for the TCF7L2 association to type-2 diabetes.

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Correspondence to Leif Groop.

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Groop, L. Open chromatin and diabetes risk. Nat Genet 42, 190–192 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0310-190

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