Conclusion
TCF7L2 type 2 diabetes susceptibility alleles are associated with islet autoantibody-negative but not autoantibody-positive new onset diabetes in young patients.
Results
A total of 140 patients (15.7%) were negative for all islet autoantibodies among 893 subjects less than age 25 at the onset of diabetes. The allele and genotype frequencies of two SNPs showed that these are associated (odds ratio up to 4) with the development of diabetes in the autoantibody-negative diabetic cohort, but not in the autoantibody-positive diabetic cohort.