posted 05/15/02
Identification
of Insulin-Clearing Protein Could Lead to Cure for Type 2 Diabetes.
Researchers
have identified a protein in the liver that helps clear insulin from
blood, a discovery that could eventually lead to a cure for type 2
diabetes.
Scientists have long believed that type 2 diabetes begins when the body's
muscles, fat tissues, and liver stop responding to insulin. Insulin brings
sugar from blood into muscle and fat tissues to be stored as fuel and
stops the liver from making its own sugar. Lack of response to insulin in
type 2 diabetes leads to increased sugar levels in blood.
Sonia M. Najjar, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology and
therapeutics at the Medical College of Ohio, contends that type 2 diabetes
may actually begin a step before the body starts resisting insulin.
Using genetically modified mice, Najjar showed that when there is
increased fat in the body, the liver's ability to clear insulin is
impaired. This, in turn, can lead to insulin resistance in the liver and
other tissues, resulting in type 2 diabetes.
This finding, coupled with the identification of CEACAM1, a liver protein
that controls insulin clearance, may play a major role in the battle
against type 2 diabetes. Najjar's report on the function of the CEACAM1
protein in insulin clearance will be published in the March 2002 issue of
Nature Genetics and can be read online at the journal's Website.
Type 2 diabetes affects 16 million people in the United States and is
often linked to obesity. Increased obesity results in younger and younger
individuals being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Deaths related to
obesity now rank second only to deaths related to tobacco. And diabetes is
the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.
Finding a cure for type 2 diabetes becomes more vital as more and younger
Americans become obese. "I can easily envision a drug that enhances
the function of this protein and leads to a cure for type 2
diabetes," Najjar said.
The
National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the
American Diabetes Association currently sponsor Najjar's research,
previously funded by the Medical College of Ohio Foundation.
Source: Diabetes In Control