Polymorphisms in the IL-1 gene cluster associate with many clinical conditions, including inflammatory and infectious diseases (periodontal and arterial diseases, altered metabolic conditions, type 2 diabetes, type 2 diabetes complications, gastric cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic inflammation, myopathies, Alzheimer's disease, malaria, and bacterial vaginosis) [6,12,17,19,21,23-31]. The gene discussed is IL1A; the disease is type 2 diabetes mellitus.