BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Several teams, including one led by Harvard researchers, claimed Thursday that they had identified several new genes connected to the most common form of diabetes in a major collaborative effort.

    The findings, presented in three reports by university scientists and one by a private company, offer novel insights into the biology of a disease that affects 170 million people worldwide.

    The findings in the journals Science and Nature Genetics provided great insight into the role played by genes in a disease also tremendously influenced by behavior -- eating too much and exercising too little.

    They identified three new genetic risk factors and confirmed five others that were discovered over the last few years. An additional risk factor identified by one group has not yet been confirmed by others.

    They are all based on a new research technique called genome-wide association studies, in which scientists compare genetic samples from thousands of individuals with a specific illness to those without it. Differences between the two are examined as possible genetic causes of the disease.

    "This is clearly a start in understanding the disease," said Dr. Larry Deeb, president for medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association. "Type 2 diabetes is multifactorial, there is not one gene associated with it, and yet we know it runs in families, so it has to be genetic."

    More than 20 million Americans now have type 2 diabetes and scientists estimate that about 54 million more are at risk of getting the illness. The disease harms the body's ability to control blood sugar and can lead to heart disease, blindness and early death.

    The new research is expected to provide leads for development of new treatments and possibly ways to prevent diabetes.

    However, the variant genes found so far account for only 2 percent to 20 percent of the overall risk of diabetes, implying there are many more to be found. The present genes are not sufficient to distinguish reliably between people at low or high risk for diabetes.

    (Agencies)