Alsmadi et al. (2008) carried out a case-control association study using 550 type 2 diabetes Saudi patients above the age of 60, and age-matched335 controls.  Genotyping was done using molecular beacon-based real time PCR assays E23K was performed.  The frequency of the K allele among the cases (231; 21%) was significantly higher than that observed among the controls (91; 13.6%).  Also the GA genotype frequency in the patients was significantly higher than that observed in the controls when compared to the GG reference genotype.  There was no significant difference between the cases and controls in AA genotype frequency compared to the GG reference genotype.

A paper by Qubbaj et al. (2011) gave details of a   preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) that was carried out on a 36 year old Saudi woman. The woman was married to her first cousin and had four children affected with congenital hyperinsulinism. Partial pancreatectomy was carried out in all four children during infancy to control their persistent hypoglycaemia. Three of the affected children later developed diabetes mellitus. Genetic testing was employed to uncover the causal mutation and a novel homozygous transversion 902G>C was discovered in the KCNJ11 gene that would result in an Arg301Pro substitution. The parents were found to be heterozygous for this mutation. After carrying out oocyte retrieval and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, the resulting embryos were subjected to PGD. The first cycle of PGD involved whole genome amplification and mutation detection along with short tandem repeat identifier analysis and this resulted in the birth of two healthy twin girls; one a carrier for the mutation and one homozygous for the wild type allele. A second cycle of PGD using haplotyping resulted in the birth of a healthy boy with a carrier haplotype.