Related topics: diabetes
Diabetes mellitus type 1
hideDiabetes mellitus type 1 (Type 1 diabetes, T1D, T1DM, IDDM, juvenile diabetes) is a form of diabetes mellitus. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that results in destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Lack of insulin causes an increase of fasting blood glucose (around 70-120 mg/dL in nondiabetic people) that begins to appear in the urine above the renal threshold (about 190-200 mg/dl in most people), thus connecting to the symptom by which the disease was identified in antiquity, sweet urine. Glycosuria or glucose in the urine causes the patients to urinate more frequently, and drink more than normal (polydipsia). Classically, these were the characteristic symptoms which prompted discovery of the disease.
Type 1 is lethal unless treated with exogenous insulin. Injection is the traditional and still most common method for administering insulin; jet injection, indwelling catheters, and inhaled insulin has also been available at various times, and there are several experimental methods as well. All replace the missing hormone formerly produced by the now non-functional beta cells in the pancreas. In recent years, pancreas transplants have also been used to treat type 1 diabetes. Islet cell transplant is also being investigated and has been achieved in mice and rats, and in experimental trials in humans as well. Use of stem cells to produce a new population of functioning beta cells seems to be a future possibility, but has yet to be demonstrated even in laboratories as of 2008.
Type 1 diabetes (formerly known as "childhood", "juvenile" or "insulin-dependent" diabetes) is not exclusively a childhood problem; the adult incidence of type 1 is noteworthy—many adults who contract type 1 diabetes are misdiagnosed with type 2 due to confusion on this point.
There is currently no clinically useful preventive measure against developing type 1 diabetes, though a vaccine has been proposed and anti-antibody approaches are also being tested. Most people who develop type 1 were otherwise healthy and of a healthy weight on onset, but they can lose weight quickly and dangerously, if not promptly diagnosed. Although the cause of type 1 diabetes is still not fully understood, the immune system damage is characteristic of type 1.
The most definite laboratory test to distinguish type 1 from type 2 diabetes is the C-peptide assay, which is a measure of endogenous insulin production since external insulin has not (to date) included C-peptide. The presence of anti-islet antibodies (to Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase, Insulinoma Associated Peptide-2 or insulin), or lack of insulin resistance, determined by a glucose tolerance test, would also be suggestive of type 1. Many type 2 diabetics continue to produce insulin internally, and all have some degree of insulin resistance.
Testing for GAD 65 antibodies has been proposed as an improved test for differentiating between type 1 and type 2 diabetes as it appears that the immune system malfunction is connected with their presence.
For more information about Diabetes mellitus type 1, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with type 1 diabetes
Scientists create fruit fly model to help unravel genetics of human diabetes
Nov 02, 2009 |
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As rates of obesity, diabetes, and related disorders have reached epidemic proportions in the US in recent years, scientists are working from many angles to pinpoint the causes and contributing factors involved ...
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Oct 28, 2009 |
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Insoluble dietary fibre, or roughage, not only keeps you regular, say Australian scientists, it also plays a vital role in the immune system, keeping certain diseases at bay.
Vegetables can protect unborn child against diabetes
Oct 27, 2009 |
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New evidence is emerging for how important it is for pregnant women to eat good, nutritious food. Expecting mothers who eat vegetables every day seem to have children who are less likely to develop type 1 diabetes, is revealed ...
Latest diabetes figures paint grim global picture
Oct 20, 2009 |
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The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) released new data today showing that a staggering 285 million people worldwide have diabetes. The latest figures from the IDF Diabetes Atlas indicate that people in low and middle-income ...
Diabetic episodes affect kids' memory
Oct 19, 2009 |
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Children who have had an episode of diabetic ketoacidosis, a common complication of diabetes, may have persistent memory problems, according to a new study from researchers at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain.
A major step in making better stem cells from adult tissue
Oct 18, 2009 |
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A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has developed a method that dramatically improves the efficiency of creating stem cells from human adult tissue, without the use of embryonic cells. The research ...
Gene data tool advances prospects for personalized medicine
Oct 09, 2009 |
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A sophisticated computational algorithm, applied to a large set of gene markers, has achieved greater accuracy than conventional methods in assessing individual risk for type 1 diabetes.
Immune cell entry into the pancreatic islets key to understanding type 1 diabetes origins
Oct 08, 2009 |
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St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have discovered how destructive immune cells gain access to insulin-producing cells and help cause diabetes.
Study uses sophisticated genetic engineering to improve insulin-producing beta cells
Oct 07, 2009 |
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One of the biggest mysteries about diabetes is why specialized cells in the pancreas stop secreting insulin, which the body needs in order to store glucose from food. A team from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario ...
Study shows regular CGM use increases diabetes control for all age groups
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The latest data from groundbreaking human clinical trials of the effectiveness of continuous glucose monitors (CGM) show that the primary determinant of improvements in achieving better diabetes control is regular use of ...
Type 1 diabetes linked to immune response to wheat
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Scientists at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa have discovered what may be an important clue to the cause of type 1 diabetes. Dr. Fraser Scott and his team tested 42 people with type 1 diabetes ...
Taking the needle's sting out of diabetes
Aug 10, 2009 |
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Found in 30% of all human cancer tumors, the Ras protein literally "drives cells crazy," says Prof. Yoel Kloog, the dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Kloog was the first in ...
Found: A gene that may play a role in type 1 diabetes
Aug 10, 2009 |
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Scientists at Stanford University have identified a gene that may play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body's insulin-producing cells. Insulin, a ...
Noninsulin-producing alpha cells in the pancreas can be converted to insulin-producing beta cells
Aug 06, 2009 |
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In findings that add to the prospects of regenerating insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes, researchers in Europe -- co-funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation -- have shown that insulin-producing ...
More insulin-producing cells, at the flip of a 'switch'
Aug 06, 2009 |
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Researchers have found a way in mice to convert another type of pancreas cell into the critical insulin-producing beta cells that are lost in those with type I diabetes. The secret ingredient is a single transcription factor, ...
