MIDIA: Environmental causes of type 1 diabetes
MIDIA aims to find environmental risk factors or factors associated with lower risk of islet autoimmunity or type 1 diabetes (T1D). The study recruited over 900 newborns throughout Norway between 2001 and 2007, after screening nearly 50 000 newborns to identify those with the HLA genotype associated with highest T1D risk (HLA DQ8/2). Children with this susceptibility genotype had an expected absolute risk of T1D around 6-8%, and were followed longitudinally with screening for islet autoantibodies (anti-insulin, -GAD and IA2), questionnaires, blood samples and fecal samples (See Stene et al. J Autoimmun 2007 for detailed description of study design). A primary focus has been intestinal viral infections, but few consistent associations have been detected, including with enteroviruses. Recently, we have also investigated celiac disease in this cohort, for which we have discovered an association with higher frequency of enteroviruses (C. Kahrs, et al. BMJ 2019). Other novel discoveries in the MIDIA study includes the finding that respiratory infections were associated with higher risk of islet autoimmunity (Rasmussen et al. 2011) and that maternal obesity was associated with higher risk of islet autoimmunity (Rasmussen, Diabetes Care 2009), findings that have subsequently been corroborated in other cohort studies. Updated analyses of autoimmunity dynamics and risk of progression to type 1 diabetes are planned for 2023.
News from 2022:
No diabetes-publications from MIDIA in 2022, but results were presented in invited presentation of “Genes vs environment in the development of type 1 diabetes” at the EASD annual meeting in Stockholm.
Publications 2022:
Stene LC, Rasmussen T, Aas FE, Tapia G, Magnus P, Skrivarhaug T, Rønningen KS. Differential impact of family history of type 1 diabetes on incidence of islet autoimmunity and progression to clinical type 1 diabetes: the MIDIA study (Abstract). European Diabetes Epidemiology Group (EDEG) 56th Annual Meeting, Crete, Greece, April 2-5, 2022. (oral)