diabetes tagged posts

Protein Kinase C Epsilon Deletion in Adipose Tissue, but Not in Liver, Improves Glucose Tolerance

A new study by Australian researchers, out today, is challenging what we know about the causes of diabetes. The new research points to fat tissue as a source of disease, and widens our understanding beyond the traditional focus on liver and pancreas as the main culprits. The findings, uncovered in mice, are published in the high-impact journal Cell Metabolism.

The new research is centred around the surprising finding that protein kinase C epsilon (PKCε), known to be involved in diabetes, isn’t acting in the liver or the pancreas as was once assumed. Researchers have long known that PKCε is important for the development of diabetes...

The image represents the first proof of principle for the successful regeneration of a functional organ (the skin) inside a mammal, by a technique known as AAV-based in vivo reprogramming. Epithelial (skin) tissues were generated by converting one cell type (red: mesenchymal cells) to another (green: basal keratinocytes) within a large ulcer in a laboratory mouse model.
Credit: Salk Institute

Plastic surgery to treat large cutaneous ulcers, including those seen in people with severe burns, bedsores or chronic diseases such as diabetes, may someday be a thing of the past. Scientists at the Salk Institute have developed a technique to directly convert the cells in an open wound into new skin cells...

Norbert Leitinger, Ph.D. (left), and Vlad Serbulea, Ph.D., of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, have determined why obesity causes harmful inflammation that can lead to diabetes, clogged arteries and other health problems. Doctors may be able to use this knowledge to battle these chronic diseases and others driven by damaging inflammation.
Credit: Dan Addison, University of Virginia Communications

Finding points to new approaches to battling diabetes, other chronic conditions. New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine explains why obesity causes harmful inflammation that can lead to diabetes, clogged arteries and other health problems. Doctors may be able to use this knowledge to battle these chronic diseases and others driven by damaging inflammation...

Oral delivery method could dramatically transform the way in which diabetics keep their blood sugar levels in check. Credit: Harvard SEAS

Technique could replace daily injections for diabetics. For millions of people living with type 1 diabetes, a painful needle prick once or twice daily is currently the only option for delivering the insulin that their bodies cannot produce on their own. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed an oral delivery method that could dramatically transform the way in which diabetics keep their blood sugar levels in check.

Not only does oral delivery of insulin promise to improve the quality of life for up to 40 million people with type 1 diabetes worldwide, it could also mitigate many of t...