Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D), one of the most chronic childhood disease, results from an autoimmune destruction of pancreatic β cells producing insulin, with insulin deficiency. Recently significant technological advances have been achieved in treatment and quality of life in diabetic patients but the causes are still uncertain, so it is still very difficult to foresee the possible prevention of this disease. The genetic factors alone do not explain the high risk of T1D, sharply increased over the last 40 years in Sardinia, with the second highest risk in the world after Finland, even as many of the people genetically predisposed to T1D do not develop the disease [1]. It is still unknown why some people develop T1D although it is agreed that genetic, non-genetic and probably epigenetic environmental factors all together contribute to the disease. The environmental factors are probably very important for both the development and the increase of T1D. The epigenetic factor possible interrelationships are to be cleared at most.
Response to Dahlquist: Environmental factors and type 1 diabetes