FTO and type 2 diabetes mellitus: SNP variants located in a 47 kb region, spanning introns 1 and 2 of the FTO gene, have been strongly associated with adult and childhood obesity as well as an increased risk for type 2 diabetes.41,42 Although SNPs in FTO were determined to have no effect on its expression, the 47 kb region has been demonstrated to contain multiple TF binding sites, enhancer-associated chromatin modifications, and DNase hypersensitivity sites, suggestive of the putative enhancer potential for this region.