Background: Disordered cellular calcium regulation has been implicated in the pathophysiology of diabetes through mechanisms that remain unresolved. The non-selective calcium channel, transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily M, member 2 (TRPM2), has been recently reported to play a role in insulin secretion by pancreatic beta-cells. We hypothesized that gene variation of TRPM2 may play a role in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: Using a case-control study from a community-based population sample of the Boston metropolitan area (all whites: 455 controls and 467 cases), we assessed the relationship of 9 TRPM2 tag-SNPs with (i) diabetes-related intermediate phenotypes and (ii) the presence of T2DM.

Result: All SNPs examined were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Overall allele, genotype, and haplotype distributions were similar between cases and controls. Three TRPM2 variants (rs2838553, rs2838554 and rs4818917) were associated with homeostasis model assessment of beta-cell function (HOMA-%B), but not with HOMA-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), fasting glucose levels nor hemoglobin A1c levels. Marker-by-marker logistic regression analysis, adjusted for potential risk factors, showed no evidence for an association of any of the tag-SNPs tested with T2DM. Further investigation using an entropy blocker-defined haplotype-based approach showed similar null findings.

Conclusions: The present investigation found no evidence for an association of the variants tested with T2DM, although HOMA-%B was negatively associated with three TRPM2 variants (rs2838553, rs2838554 and rs4818917). More importantly, our present findings require replication/confirmation in future large-scale, prospective investigations.