Scientists have discovered a gene that plays a role in the most common type of type 2 diabetes, and they say the discovery could pave the way to a targeted treatment.Defects in the gene, called ARNT, caused mice to develop abnormalities in insulin secretion, the researchers report in the Aug, 12 issue of Cell. “This gene, ARNT, is the first gene identified to be abnormal in the pancreatic islet cells, the cells that make insulin, in people with the common type of type 2 diabetes,” said study leader Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, president and director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School.
