Study could offer a new way to treat Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
Blocking cell receptors for glucagon, the counter-hormone to insulin, cured mouse models of diabetes by converting glucagon-producing cells into insulin producers instead, a team led by UT Southwestern reports in a new study. The findings, published online in
PNAS, could offer a new way to treat both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in people.
More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, a disease characterized by a loss of beta cells in the pancreas. Beta cells produce insulin, a hormone necessary for cells to absorb and use glucose, a type of sugar that circulates in the blood and serves as cellular fuel.
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IMAGE: At left is a healthy islet with many insulin-producing cells (green) and few glucagon-producing cells (red). At right, this situation is altered in a diabetic islet with a heavy preponderance. view more
Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center
Blocking cell receptors for glucagon, the counter-hormone to insulin, cured mouse models of diabetes by converting glucagon-producing cells into insulin producers instead, a team led by UT Southwestern reports in a new study. The findings, published online in
PNAS, could offer a new way to treat both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in people.
More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, a disease characterized by a loss of beta cells in the pancreas. Beta cells produce insulin, a hormone necessary for cells to absorb and use glucose, a type of sugar that circulates in the blood and serves as cellular fuel.
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An experimental treatment can essentially reverse type 1 diabetes in certain types of laboratory mice, according to a series of studies led by University of Utah Health scientists. An injection of the therapeutic agent converts cells that normally control glucose production into ones that generate insulin.
The researchers say giving the animals a single dose of a human antibody that suppress the actions of glucagon, a hormone involved in glucose regulation, sparked a remarkable transformation in the pancreas, leading to a nearly 7-fold increase in insulin cell mass and the suppression of diabetic symptoms. These animals go from requiring insulin injections to never requiring a diabetes treatment again. They maintain normal blood glucose long after we stop the treatment, says William L. Holland, Ph.D., the study s corresponding author and a U of U Health assistant professor of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology. What this implies for millions of people who have type