Candidate gene association study of UCP3 variant rs1800849 with T2D in Mizo population of Northeast India

Uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) has been identified as a type 2 diabetes (T2D) candidate gene and variant rs1800849 is of potential interest as it is present in the regulatory region of UCP3. The aim of the present candidate gene case-control association study was to evaluate the association of variant rs1800849 of UCP3 with T2D in Mizo population from Northeast India. The variation was genotyped using TaqMan allele discrimination assay in 767 individuals (425 cases and 342 healthy controls). The variant rs1800849 of UCP3 was not found to be significantly associated with T2D (p-value = 0.733) in studied population group. Thus, it is concluded that the present study could not replicate the association of variant rs1800849 with genetic susceptibility to T2D in the Mizo population group. This absence of association highlights the genetic heterogeneity prevalent in Indian population groups and warrants screening of other T2D candidate genes in Mizo population group.