CEL and diabetes mellitus: Links between the BSDL gene and diabetes are multiple; circulating antibodies to the C-terminal mucin-like domain of BSDL have been detected in sera of patients with a type-1 diabetes [19], and a single base deletion in either repeat 1 or 4 within the VNTR has been associated with autosomal-dominantly inherited maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY-8) with exocrine dysfunctions.