Exclusion of insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS-2) as a major locus for early-onset autosomal dominant type 2 diabetes.

We investigated whether variability at the insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-2 locus plays a role in the etiology of early-onset autosomal dominant type 2 diabetes. By means of radiation hybrid mapping, we placed the human IRS-2 gene on 13q at 8.6 cRays from SHGC-37358. Linkage between diabetes and two polymorphic markers located in this region (D13S285 and D13S1295) was then evaluated in 29 families with early-onset autosomal dominant type 2 diabetes. Included were 220 individuals with diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, or gestational diabetes (mean age at diabetes diagnosis 36 +/- 17 years) and 146 nondiabetic subjects. Overall, strongly negative logarithm of odds (LOD) scores for linkage with diabetes were obtained by multipoint parametric analysis (LOD score -45.4 at D13S285 and -40.9 at D13S1295). No significant evidence of linkage was obtained under the hypothesis of heterogeneity or by nonparametric methods. Fourteen pedigrees for which linkage could not be excluded (LOD score > -2.0) were screened for mutations in the IRS-2 coding region by dideoxy fingerprinting. However, no mutations segregating with diabetes could be detected in these families. These data indicate that IRS-2 is not a major gene for early-onset autosomal dominant type 2 diabetes, although a role of mutations in the promoter region cannot be excluded at this time.