Interestingly, a recent meta-analysis showed that, compared with Caucasians and Africans, East Asians (including Japanese) tended to have a high level of insulin sensitivity and a low level of insulin secretion, measured as the acute insulin response to glucose.2 Therefore, decreased insulin sensitivity may be a major contributor to the natural progression of insulin resistance to type 2 diabetes in East Asian people. The gene discussed is INS; the disease is type 2 diabetes mellitus.