New research on type 2 diabetes could benefit young adults with the condition

February 1, 2010

New research on Type 2 diabetes by Trinity College Dublin researchers could benefit young adults (aged 18-25 years) with the condition. The research led by Professor John Nolan of Trinity College Dublin and St James's Hospital, Dublin, has just been published online in the leading international journal, Diabetes Care.

The study findings demonstrate new mechanisms in that may explain severe insulin resistance which is the body's decreased ability to respond to the effects of insulin, and a reduced response to in young obese patients with . These important findings will contribute in the longterm to the development of more specific treatments for young people with Type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. It occurs because the body produces too little insulin and is unable to properly use the insulin that is secreted. It usually occurs in older people although it is becoming more common among younger people, partly due to lifestyle factors such as diet, lack of physical activity and obesity. The highest rates occur in countries with modern lifestyles. Type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 85%-90% of all cases of diabetes in European countries.

Commenting on the significance of the research, Professor John Nolan of the Department of Clinical Medicine, TCD, who led the Metabolic Research Group, said: "Type 2 diabetes is presenting in much younger people, usually because of early onset obesity and a strong family background of diabetes. These studies provide us with important new insights into the way diabetes develops and progresses in these young patients. In this study, we have shown that obese young patients with Type 2 diabetes, in contrast to equally obese young people without diabetes, have abnormal function of key and proteins. Mitochondria are the energy centres in cells and these abnormalities contribute to insulin resistance and a severely blunted response to physical exercise. Aerobic exercise is very effective in preventing and treating Type 2 diabetes in middle aged and older people."

"Type 2 diabetes is the major chronic disease of modern societies", continued Professor Nolan, "and threatens the health of populations, most dramatically in Asia and developing countries. Designing specific treatments for Type 2 diabetes in young people depends on a more exact understanding of the cellular mechanisms of this disease. Our studies of muscle mitochondrial function have allowed us to focus intervention studies on these important new mechanisms."

The research was carried out by the Metabolic Research Unit at Trinity College Dublin based at St James's Hospital. These studies are part of an ongoing research programme by Professor Nolan's team into the causes and treatment of Type 2 diabetes and severe in young people. The investigations were done in collaboration with Professor Antonio Zorzano at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona. The studies were funded by grants from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes and from the EU Commission as well as grants from the Ministerio de Educación y Cultura in Spain.

Provided by Trinity College Dublin (news : web)


Rank not rated yet
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins

Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created 7 hours ago | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Both maternal and paternal age linked to autism

Older maternal and paternal age are jointly associated with having a child with autism, according to a recently published study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created 12 hours ago | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New understanding of DNA repair could eventually lead to cancer therapy

A research group in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta is hoping its latest discovery could one day be used to develop new therapies that target certain types of cancers.

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created 11 hours ago | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Curry spice component may help slow prostate tumor growth

Curcumin, an active component of the Indian curry spice turmeric, may help slow down tumor growth in castration-resistant prostate cancer patients on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), a study from researchers ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created 13 hours ago | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Team isolates nerve cells involved in storing long term memory and gene proteins associated with them

(Medical Xpress) -- A research team in Taiwan has succeeded in isolating two nerve cells in fruit fly brains that are believed to be the major players in allowing for the formation of long term memories. Furthermore, ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created 14 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report


Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)

The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.

Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets

Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.

New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission

Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...

Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males

A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...

New power source discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT University have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation.