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Milk intake, lactase non-persistence and type 2 diabetes risk in Chinese adults

Nature Metabolism volume 6, pages 2054–2056 (2024)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 18 September 2024

The Original Article was published on 22 January 2024

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arising from K. Luo et al. Nature Metabolism https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00961-1 (2024)

In the 2024 January issue of Nature Metabolism, Luo et al.1 reported an inverse association between milk intake and risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) among individuals who were lactase non-persistent (LNP), as determined by the lactase (LCT) rs4988235 homozygous GG genotype. The authors also reported inverse cross-sectional associations of milk intake with several T2D-related metabolic traits, including body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) in LNP individuals. However, in their analyses, no adjustments for BMI/WC were done in assessing the association between milk intake and T2D risk, which may lead to biased results. Given the established causal relevance of adiposity for incident T2D2,3 and the observed inverse associations of milk intake with adiposity in the study population, it is therefore important to establish whether the associations of milk consumption, milk-associated gut bacteria and milk-associated metabolites with T2D risk are confounded, or mediated, by BMI/WC in the paper by Luo et al.

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Data availability

The CKB is a global resource for the investigation of lifestyle, environmental, blood biochemical and genetic factors as determinants of common diseases. The CKB study group is committed to making the cohort data available to the scientific community in China, the United Kingdom and worldwide to advance knowledge about the causes, prevention and treatment of disease. For detailed information on what data are currently available to open-access users and how to apply for it, see https://www.ckbiobank.org/data-access/. Researchers who are interested in obtaining the raw data from the CKB study that underline this paper should contact ckbaccess@ndph.ox.ac.uk. A research proposal will be requested to ensure that any analysis is performed by bona fide researchers and, where data are not currently available to open-access researchers, is restricted to the topic covered in this paper.

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Acknowledgements

The chief acknowledgement is to the participants, the project staff and the Chinese CDC and its regional offices for assisting with the fieldwork. We thank J. Mackay in Hong Kong; Y. Wang, G. Yang, Z. Qiang, L. Feng, M. Zhou, W. Zhao and Y. Zhang in the Chinese CDC; L. Kong, X. Yu and K. Li in the Chinese Ministry of Health; and G. Lancaster, S. Clark, M. Radley, M. Hill, H. Pan and J. Boreham in the CTSU, Oxford, for assisting with the design, planning, organization and conduct of the study. The CKB baseline survey and the first resurvey were supported by the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation in Hong Kong. The long-term follow-up has been supported by Wellcome grants to Oxford University (212946/Z/18/Z, 202922/Z/16/Z, 104085/Z/14/Z, 088158/Z/09/Z) and grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82192900, 82192901, 82192904) and from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0900500). The UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00017/1, MC_UU_12026/2, MC_U137686851), Cancer Research UK (C16077/A29186; C500/A16896) and the British Heart Foundation (CH/1996001/9454), provide core funding to the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit at Oxford University for the project. M.G.K. was supported by the Wellcome Trust, Our Planet Our Health Programme (Livestock, Environment and People - LEAP; grant number 205212/Z/16/Z). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Maria G. Kakkoura, Robin G. Walters, Robert Clarke, Zhengming Chen & Huaidong Du

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  1. Maria G. Kakkoura
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  2. Robin G. Walters
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  3. Robert Clarke
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  4. Zhengming Chen
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  5. Huaidong Du
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Contributions

M.G.K. analysed the data. M.G.K. and H.D. drafted the manuscript. R.C., R.G.W. and Z.C. contributed to the writing of the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed the manuscript and approved the final submission.

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Correspondence to Huaidong Du.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Metabolism thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Ashley Castellanos-Jankiewicz, in collaboration with the Nature Metabolism team.

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Kakkoura, M.G., Walters, R.G., Clarke, R. et al. Milk intake, lactase non-persistence and type 2 diabetes risk in Chinese adults. Nat Metab 6, 2054–2056 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-024-01128-2

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