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Hormone May Help Doctors Treat Diabetes: Studies
By Merritt McKinney
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A substance secreted by fat tissue and that seems to affect how well the body responds to the sugar-processing hormone insulin may hold promise as a diabetes drug, researchers in Japan and the US report in two studies.
Because the cells of some patients with diabetes are resistant to the effects of insulin, leading to high blood sugar levels, the substance, known as adiponectin, could help doctors treat diabetes, according to one of the study's authors, Dr. Philipp E. Scherer, of New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Both reports, published in the August issue of Nature Medicine, are part of a growing realization by scientists that fat cells are more than just inactive blobs. They show "that fat tissue can release factors that influence insulin sensitivity in other tissues," Scherer told Reuters Health. Doctors may also be able to use measurements of adiponectin to test for insulin resistance.
Scherer's team was one of two groups of researchers to identify the connection between adiponectin and insulin resistance, which occurs in patients with type 2 diabetes, obese people, and those who have had an extreme loss of body fat.
A group of researchers led by Takashi Kadowaki of the University of Tokyo detected below-average levels of adiponectin in insulin-resistant mice. But treating the mice with adiponectin reversed some of this resistance.
Scherer and his colleagues achieved similar results in their experiments with obese and diabetic mice. After a single injection of adiponectin, blood sugar levels, which had been high, dropped to normal.
Despite the promise of adiponectin as a treatment for diabetes, Scherer told Reuters Health that much more needs to be learned about the hormone. The two studies were performed only in mice.
Noting that adiponectin may be involved in burning fat, Dr. Alan R. Saltiel of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, suggested in an editorial that accompanies the studies that adiponectin could be "a big hit."
SOURCE: Nature Medicine 2001;7:887-888, 941-946, 947-953.
By Merritt McKinney
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A substance secreted by fat tissue and that seems to affect how well the body responds to the sugar-processing hormone insulin may hold promise as a diabetes drug, researchers in Japan and the US report in two studies.
Because the cells of some patients with diabetes are resistant to the effects of insulin, leading to high blood sugar levels, the substance, known as adiponectin, could help doctors treat diabetes, according to one of the study's authors, Dr. Philipp E. Scherer, of New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Both reports, published in the August issue of Nature Medicine, are part of a growing realization by scientists that fat cells are more than just inactive blobs. They show "that fat tissue can release factors that influence insulin sensitivity in other tissues," Scherer told Reuters Health. Doctors may also be able to use measurements of adiponectin to test for insulin resistance.
Scherer's team was one of two groups of researchers to identify the connection between adiponectin and insulin resistance, which occurs in patients with type 2 diabetes, obese people, and those who have had an extreme loss of body fat.
A group of researchers led by Takashi Kadowaki of the University of Tokyo detected below-average levels of adiponectin in insulin-resistant mice. But treating the mice with adiponectin reversed some of this resistance.
Scherer and his colleagues achieved similar results in their experiments with obese and diabetic mice. After a single injection of adiponectin, blood sugar levels, which had been high, dropped to normal.
Despite the promise of adiponectin as a treatment for diabetes, Scherer told Reuters Health that much more needs to be learned about the hormone. The two studies were performed only in mice.
Noting that adiponectin may be involved in burning fat, Dr. Alan R. Saltiel of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, suggested in an editorial that accompanies the studies that adiponectin could be "a big hit."
SOURCE: Nature Medicine 2001;7:887-888, 941-946, 947-953.
