Systematic search for single nucleotide polymorphisms in the 5 flanking region of the human phosphodiesterase 3B gene: absence of evidence for major effects of identified polymorphisms on susceptibility to Japanese type 2 diabetes

The activation of phosphodiesterase 3B (PDE3B) reduces free fatty acid output from adipocytes. A reduced PDE3B gene expression could lead to insulin resistance. To determine whether there are polymorphisms associated with type 2 diabetes in PDE3B gene promoter, this 5ʹ flanking region was isolated. The transcription initiation site was located 206 bp upstream from the translation start site. Sequences of 2 kb of the 5ʹ flanking region for 24 type 2 diabetic Japanese subjects were initially analyzed using PCR direct sequencing, and the regions including the identified polymorphisms were then examined. In 98 controls and 98 type 2 diabetic subjects, -1947T > C, -567G > A, -465G > T, -458T > C, and -1727--1726insTCAATT were found. Only -465G > T and this insertion had more than 5% frequencies. Since a complete linkage disequilibrium existed between them, -465G > T was further analyzed, along with a previously identified +1389G > A in the coding region, in a total of 200 controls and 207 type 2 diabetic subjects. These allele frequencies were not significantly different between these two groups (controls vs. cases; -465G > T, 12.0% vs. 10.1%, P=0.435; +1389G > A, 30.3% vs. 33.3%, P=0.408). These genotype distributions were not significantly different between these two groups. The T/T genotype at -465 was rare although this frequency could be higher in type 2 diabetes (4/207 subjects) than controls (0/200 subjects). The linkage disequilibrium existed between -465G > T and +1389G > A, and the estimated haplotype frequencies defined by these SNPs were not significantly different between the cases and controls. Thus, the identified polymorphisms are unlikely to have major effects on susceptibility to Japanese type 2 diabetes.