Diabetologia (2012) 55:1971–1977 DOI 10.1007/s00125-012-2537-x ARTICLE A gene variant near ATM is significantly associated with metformin treatment response in type 2 diabetes: a replication and meta-analysis of five cohorts N. van Leeuwen & G. Nijpels & M. L. Becker & H. Deshmukh & K. Zhou & B. H. C. Stricker & A. G. Uitterlinden & A. Hofman & E. van ’t Riet & C. N. A. Palmer & B. Guigas & P. E. Slagboom & P. Durrington & R. A. Calle & A. Neil & G. Hitman & S. J. Livingstone & H. Colhoun & R. R. Holman & M. I. McCarthy & J. M. Dekker & L. M. ’t Hart & E. R. Pearson Received: 20 November 2011 / Accepted: 28 February 2012 / Published online: 28 March 2012 # The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Aims/hypothesis In this study we aimed to replicate the previously reported association between the glycaemic re- sponse to metformin and the SNP rs11212617 at a locus that includes the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene in multiple additional populations. Methods Incident users of metformin selected from the Dia- betes Care System West-Friesland (DCS, n 0 929) and the Rotterdam Study (n 0 182) from the Netherlands, and the CARDS Trial (n 0 254) from the UK were genotyped for rs11212617 and tested for an association with both HbA1c reduction and treatment success, defined as the ability to L. M. ’t Hart and E. R. Pearson contributed equally to this study. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00125-012-2537-x) contains peer-reviewed but unedited supplementary material, which is available to authorised users. N. van Leeuwen : B. Guigas : L. M. ’t Hart Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands G. Nijpels : E. van ’t Riet : J. M. Dekker EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands G. Nijpels Department of General Practice, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands M. L. Becker : B. H. C. Stricker : A. G. Uitterlinden : A. Hofman Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands M. L. Becker Department of Hospital Pharmacy, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands H. Deshmukh : K. Zhou : C. N. A. Palmer : S. J. Livingstone : H. Colhoun : E. R. Pearson (*) University of Dundee, Medical Research Institute, Dundee DD1 9SY, UK e-mail: e.z.pearson@dundee.ac.uk E. van ’t Riet : J. M. Dekker Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands P. E. Slagboom : L. M. ’t Hart (*) Leiden University Medical Center, Molecular Epidemiology, Postzone S5-P, PO box 9600, 2300RC Leiden, the Netherlands e-mail: l.m.t_hart@lumc.nl P. E. Slagboom Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing, the Netherlands URL: www.healthy-ageing.nl