Did you or a family member develop diabetes after the age of 10 but before the age of 30? Was it perhaps treated with oral agents rather than insulin , at least for a while? Were there a lot of diabetes in your family. Does diabetes appear in at least 3 consecutive generations of your family? In several members of each generation? If your answers to most of these questions is "Yes", you may have the unusual form of diabetes called MODY-MATURITY ONSET DIABETES OF THE YOUNG. MODY is not really either Type I or Type II Diabetes, since it shares some characteristics from both. But perhaps most important to scientists, it seems to run very strongly in families-which means that the chances for identifying the gene or genes that cause it are strong. Researchers have already discovered the approximate location on a partiualar chromosome(chromosome 12)in which the defect occurs. Now they are hunting for the exact location.

Dr. Andrzej Krolewski and colleagues have recently received funding from the National Institutes of Health and from a biotechnology company to begin studies of large families with MODY. Only about 1-3% of the people with diabetes have this form of the disease.

One of the biggest tip-offs that the form of diabetes you have is MODY is if 3 generations in a row in a family have members with diabetes.

In some cases, the people with MODY are overweight-as is frequently the case in Type II diabetes-"but most are just average weight", says Dr. Krolewski.

To study MODY in hopes of identifying the genes that cause it, Dr. Krolewski needs 40 families in which:

1) Diabetes runs in at least 3 consecutive generations
2) At least 1 family member developed diabetes before 30 years of age
3) The people with diabetes must be living and willing to participate in the study.

Because of the unique characteristics, the frequent misclassification, and the relative rarity of the disease, Dr. Krolewski and his reasearch team say, "that they will travel almost anywhere", to examine families that have MODY.

Patients who participate in the study will be interviewed and asked to provide medical information; height, weight and blood pressure. Those who don't have diabetes will be given an oral glucose tolerance test. Those who are diabetic will be given a test to see if they have any insulin production reamaining. Blood will be taken so that the DNA can be examined and compared from one family member to another.

All data collected from the study will be kept confidential.

For more information call Joslin at (617)735-1905.

Joslin Diabetes Center