Ask the Diabetes Educator Archive

10/17/05

Q:
My husband and brother have diabetes. His mother and Aunt (mother's sister) have diabetes. Their mother (my husband's grandmother) had diabetes. Is diabetes linked to the X chromosome and passed down through the mother?

A:
No, diabetes in type 2 is linked to autosomal, or non sex genes. The "ability" to inherit may come for either side. Type 1 diabetes has other genetic connections, also non sex related.