Furthermore, for some of the candidate genes for T2D, T2D related traits and obesity identified by GWAS, we found both differential mRNA expression and changes in DNA methylation in islets exposed to palmitate, for example, TCF7L2 and GLIS3 show decreased expression and increased DNA methylation (Additional file 6: Table S6, Additional file 7: Table S7 and Additional file 8: Table S8). Here, TCF7L2 is linked to obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.