Investigation of the relationship between NFKB1 polymorphisms and telomere length and apoptosis in patients with type-2 diabetes

Purpose: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a heterogeneous, chronic, and metabolic disease that affects a significant proportion of the global population. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of NFKB1-94 ATTG ins/del polymorphisms on the expression of apoptosis genes and telomere length (TL) in patients with T2DM compared with healthy individuals.Materials and Methods: Sixty-nine T2DM patients and sixty healthy people were enrolled in the study. DNA and RNA were isolated from the blood samples. NFKB1 genotypes were identified by Sanger sequencing. For TL analyses and to investigate the expression of the caspase-3, caspase-9, bax, and bcl2 genes, RT-PCR was utilized.Results: There was a significant difference between the NFKB1-94 ins/del genotype patients and the control group (OR:0.4792 (0.2345-1.011)). However, the distribution of other genotype/alleles (ins/ins and del/del) showed no difference between T2DM and control groups. The allelic frequency of NFKB1-94 ins/del was 0.455/0.235 for the T2DM group and 0.435/0.165 for the control group. An increase in the mRNA expression of caspase-3, caspase-9 and Bax genes was observed in the T2DM group compared with the healthy group, while a decrease in the Bcl2 gene was found in the T2DM group. TL in T2DM patients was shorter than in healthy individuals.Conclusion: NFKB1-94 ins/del polymorphisms show significant differences in T2DM patients. We observed that apoptosis was activated and TL was shortened in patients with T2DM. However, no relationship between NFKB1 polymorphisms and apoptosis and TL could not be determined.