Insulin News and Research

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Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert glucose, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Insulin allows cells to use glucose for fuel and is secreted by beta cells in the islets of Langerhans. The release of insulin from the pancreas is stimulated by increased blood glucose, vagal nerve stimulation, and other factors. Insulin is obtained from various animals and available in a variety of preparations. Commercial insulin preparations differ in a number of ways, including differences in the animal species from which they are obtained; their purity, concentration, and solubility; and the time of onset and duration of their biologic action. An oral hypoglycemic agent is not a form of insulin therapy.

Without increased funding, California's dominance and public health are threatened, according to new report

The California Healthcare Institute (CHI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today released a report, "The National Institutes of Health: Fueling Healthcare Innovation in California," urging legislators to support increased funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - the backbone of the biomedical industry in California, which employs more than 267,000 people in high wage jobs.

11 Jun 2008

Drug combo offers new approach for reversing type 1 diabetes

Promising results from a study that tested a new approach for reversing Type 1 diabetes are being presented this week at the American Diabetes Association's 68th Annual Scientific Session in San Francisco.

11 Jun 2008

Having heart surgery? Watch your blood sugar

Nearly half of all heart surgery patients may experience blood sugar levels high enough to require temporary insulin treatment after their operation, even though they've never had diabetes, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Health System.

10 Jun 2008

Discovery of new signal pathway important to diabetes research

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Miami University have discovered that cells in the pancreas cooperate - signal - in a way hitherto unknown. The discovery can eventually be of significance to the treatment of diabetes.

4 Jun 2008

Long-term pesticide exposure may increase diabetes risk

Licensed pesticide applicators who used chlorinated pesticides on more than 100 days in their lifetime were at greater risk of diabetes, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The associations between specific pesticides and incident diabetes ranged from a 20 percent to a 200 percent increase in risk, said the scientists with the NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

4 Jun 2008

Discovery of genes that regulate glucose levels

In an effort to understand how genes work, a collaborative study which includes the University of Southern California (USC) has identified a gene that regulates glucose levels. The results, which will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and is currently available online, may provide further understanding of the underlying causes of diabetes.

3 Jun 2008

Study looks at the role of metformin as possible anti-tumor agent

Metformin, the common first-line drug for type 2 diabetes, may be effective in increasing pathologic complete response rates in diabetic women with early stage breast cancer who took the drug during chemotherapy prior to having surgery, paving the way for further research of the drug as a potential cancer therapy, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

2 Jun 2008

UT Southwestern mouse model mimics hyperglycemia, aids in diabetes research

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have genetically engineered a laboratory mouse in which pancreatic beta cells can regenerate after being induced to die. The new animal model's regenerative ability may provide future insights into improved treatments of diabetes, which affects millions of Americans.

2 Jun 2008

New multi-million pound study to find the cause of Type 1 diabetes

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has awarded more than £3 million to fund a research centre that will investigate the causes of Type 1 diabetes - a condition that results from an immune attack on the body's insulin producing cells. The study, known as the JDRF Centre for Diabetes Genes, Autoimmunity and Prevention (D-GAP), aims to understand how and why Type 1 diabetes occurs, knowledge that may help develop future therapies with the aim of preventing the condition.

28 May 2008

Thousands with type 2 diabetes at risk bacause they do not take their drugs

According to Diabetes UK, in excess of 650,000 people with obesity-related diabetes do not take their drugs and the charity says they are putting themselves at risk of developing serious health problems such as stroke and blindness.

27 May 2008

Discovery of potential target for elevated triglycerides

Diabetes researchers at the John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have identified a potential target for the development of new therapies to treat hypertriglyceridemia, a lipid disorder commonly seen in people who are obese and diabetic. Results of their study are published in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

26 May 2008

Good news for diabetics

A study has found that a short course of intensive insulin treatment may delay the progression of the disease in people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes

25 May 2008

How cells size up their growth opportunities

The intricate mechanisms that switch cell growth on and off are regulated by mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) protein complexes, which sense nutrients within the cell. When amino-acids are abundant, the protein complexes promote cellular growth, and when nutrients are scarce they signal that hard times are ahead to the cell. But just how nutrients regulate mTOR signaling to control size has remained a mystery. Now, scientists in the lab of Whitehead Member David Sabatini have found the first step in the process.

25 May 2008

Glycemic stability may be important key to recovery from critical illness

Widely varying blood glucose levels may pose as great a threat, or possibly a greater threat, to critically ill patients as high, but steady, glycemic levels, according to researchers in Saudi Arabia, who will present their findings at the American Thoracic Society's 2008 International Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, May 20.

21 May 2008

Effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy causing 'complacency' among high-risk groups

HIV/AIDS clinicians and scientists have been "witness to a transformation in disease management that is virtually unprecedented in the history of medicine," Mark Wainberg, director of McGill University's AIDS Centre at Jewish General Hospital, and Julio Montaner, director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, write in a National Post opinion piece.

19 May 2008

Demand for alternative sweeteners are increasing by 8% a year

The demand for alternative sweeteners to sugar is increasing at a rate of 8% per year. The market is showing more and more interest in natural sweeteners compared to synthetic ones. This has been reflected in a study carried out by researchers at the Universidad Miguel Hernández (UMH) in Elche, Alicante.

12 May 2008

Charity says rules for diabetic drivers unfair

According to new research in Britain drivers with diabetes do not present any extra risk on the road and diabetics have no more car accidents than those without the condition.

12 May 2008

Researchers step closer to finding ways to treat type 1 diabetes

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis working with diabetic mice have examined in unprecedented detail the immune cells long thought to be responsible for type 1 diabetes.

9 May 2008

Mothers' high normal blood sugar levels place infants at risk for birth problems

Pregnant women with blood sugar levels in the higher range of normal - but not high enough to be considered diabetes - are more likely than women with lower blood sugar levels to give birth to babies at risk for many of the same problems seen in babies born to women with diabetes during pregnancy, according to a study funded in large part by the National Institutes of Health.

8 May 2008