Hello
This is my first message here, I am the father of a type1 diabetic child and I like to be aware of the scientific advances around diabetes, so I want to expose an article that has left the scientific community frozen, not because it supposes a finding thatIt quickly takes a cure but because radically changes the explanation we have about insulin and glucagon, I directly transcribe it (automatic but very understandable translation) and that each one thinks:
The original article is found here: Link
I have edited the translation so as not to make the post very extensive
Scientedaily (January 27, 2011)Findings of the researchers of the UT Medical Center.
These findings in mice show that insulin becomes completely superfluous and its absence does not cause diabetes or any other anomaly when glucagon actions are suppressed.The glucagon, a hormone produced by the pancreas, prevents low blood sugar levels in healthy people.But it is the cause of blood sugar in people with type 1 diabetes.
"We have all been educated to think of insulin is the great range hormone and that without it life is impossible, but that is not the case," said Dr. Roger Unger, professor of internal medicine and principal author of the study that appears inLine and in the February edition of Diabetes."If diabetes is defined as the restoration of glucose homeostasis to normal, then this treatment can be considered very close to a" cure. "
Insulin treatment has been the gold standard for type 1 diabetes (insulin dependent diabetes) in humans since its discovery in 1922. But even the optimal regulation of type 1 diabetes with insulin alone cannot restore theNormal glucose tolerance.These new discoveries show that glucagon elimination restores glucose tolerance to normality.
Normally, glucagon is released when the level of glucose, or sugar, in the blood is low.In insulin deficiency, however, glucagon levels are excessive, and make the liver release an excessive amount of glucose to the blood torrent.This action opposes insulin, which directs body cells to eliminate the sugar from the bloodstream.
Dr. Unger's laboratory investigation found benefit of glucagon suppression.
In this study, UT scientists have tried how genetically altered mice to glucagon receptors responded to an oral glucose tolerance test.The test - which can be used to diagnose diabetes, gestational diabetes and pre -diabetes - measures the ability of the body to metabolize the glucose of the blood torrent.
The researchers found that mice with normal insulin production, but without operation glucagon receptors normally responded to the test.The mice also normally responded when the beta cells of insulin producers were destroyed.Mice that had no action of insulin or glucagon did not develop diabetes.
"These findings suggest that if there is no glucagon, no matter if you do not have insulin," said Dr. Unger, who is also a doctor in the medical center Va de Dallas."This does not mean that insulin is not important. It is essential for the normal growth and development of the newborn until adulthood. But in adulthood, at least withRegarding the metabolism of glucose, the role of insulin is glucagon control.
