St. Louis ? Two international research teams, one from Washington University, have uncovered genetic variations that predispose people to develop Type 2 diabetes, commonly called adult-onset diabetes.

The Washington University team studied Ashkenazi Jews from Israel. A team from the National Institutes of Health examined the genetic roots of the disease in people from Finland. Both groups came up with the same results.

The researchers discovered that Type 2 diabetics are more likely than nondiabetics to inherit a group of common genetic variations in the control region of the hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4A) gene. The gene encodes a protein that regulates production of hundreds of other proteins important for the development and function of the liver and pancreas. None of the variants affect the protein-coding part of the gene.

The results of the study will appear in the April issue of the journal Diabetes.

Body tissues of people with Type 2 diabetes do not respond properly to insulin and their pancreases gradually stop producing insulin.

The Washington University team, led by Dr. Alan Permutt and Dr. Latisha D. Love-Gregory, tested 275 Ashkenazi Jewish diabetics and 342 nondiabetic Ashkenazi Jews.

The researchers studied this population because previous work to uncover the cause of genetic diseases involving only one gene proved easier in homogeneous populations, such as Ashkenazi Jews, Permutt said.

But the results of the Finnish study closely mirror those of the Ashkenazi study. That could mean that the genetic variants are ancient, Permutt said.