New Treatment For Diabetes - The One Every Diabetic is Waiting For?

New treatment for diabetes may be the next stage after the results of a study led by Joslin appeared in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. This brings us hope for a possible new treatment for diabetes. This study found that leptin plays an important part in the growth of islet cells and the secretion of insulin.

Just what is leptin? It is that hormone known mostly for regulating appetite management and energy metabolism. Leptin receptors found throughout the body, counting the brain and the pancreas, act as a go-between in the inhibition of the secretion of insulin.

Leptin is a protein hormone that affects the regulation of the body weight, metabolism and reproductive function. Recent researches with obese and the not obese participants showed a strong positive correlation of serum leptin concentrations with percentage of body fat. In truth, leptin supplies the body with a guide of nutritional standing.

This was established in previous studies. Rohit N. Kulkami, M.D., Ph.D who led this study, said that they wanted to understand better the role of leptin in the beta cells. Dr. Kulkami, who is an assistant professor at Harvard University Medical School, is also the main investigator at Joslin Diabetes Center.

So they wanted to investigate this because it is not known why obese people develop diabetes despite the high presence of both insulin and leptin in the bloodstream. They therefore developed a mouse model which they engineered genetically not to produce leptin receptors in the pancreas but they kept the ones in the brain and the rest of the body.

They found that those that did not have leptin receptors in the pancreas exhibited better glucose tolerance, more secretion of insulin and more beta cell growth. They expected this result as the normal job of the leptin is to maintain insulin levels so they don't get too elevated.

In the next phase of the study, they fed both the mouse model and the control group with the leptin receptors, a high-fat diet. Both groups naturally became fat but herein lies the difference. The mouse model developed severe resistance to insulin and glucose intolerance which we know is a sign that diabetes is coming. What does this mean?

Researches will concentrate on the link between insulin and leptin and identify the proteins present in the pathways regulating the growth of beta cells and their activities. This could only help in the improvement of drugs that can control these proteins into affecting the growth and function of the beta cells. This will certainly have implication for the treatment of types 1 and 2 diabetes.

Hopefully, the next phase of the study is finding these proteins in natural sources in the food we eat which in my humble opinion will be better than developing therapeutic drugs. This will be easier to do than finding the link between leptin and the beta cells which is essential I know and is the more difficult stage of the process towards the finding a new treatment for diabetes.

Please visit these sites for more diabetes help:

Diabetes Treatment

New Treatment for Diabetes

Brief Biography: Dr. Guzman worked for the Atlantic Health Corporation and was consultant to St. Joseph's Hospital, Sussex Mental Health Clinic, and St. Stephen Mental Health Clinic for many years. He was Director of Forensic Psychiatry at Centracare for ten years and published numerous articles in the Journal of the American College of Forensic Psychiatry and other medical magazines.

Copyright © October 27, 2008 Roger Guzman, M.D. (New Treatment for Diabetes) All Rights Reserved. You may copy and publish this article as long as the text, the author's name, the active links and this notice remain the same.