Dr. James Lo’s laboratory recently discovered that the adipose-secreted protein adipsin protects pancreatic beta cells from destruction in type 2 diabetes. The study, published in Nature Medicine on November 7th showed that an increase in adipsin levels resulted in a long-term positive effect on diabetes treatment, preventing beta cell death.
“Some of the currently available medications that target beta cells have side effects, such as lowering blood glucose levels too much. In addition, there are no proven treatments to prevent beta cell loss. People with type 2 diabetes whose beta cells don’t work properly have to inject insulin to keep their blood glucose levels stable,” said senior author James Lo, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, in a WCM News Release, published on November 8th.
About 30 million Americans suffer of diabetes, 95% of which have the type 2 form.
As part of the study, Dr. Lo and his collaborators showed that people with higher levels of adipsin in the blood had a lower incidence of developing diabetes in the future
Congratulations to the Lo laboratory!