Type 2 Diabetes: A Problem of Inflammation

A recent study suggests that type 2 diabetes may be more of an inflammatory disease than research has previously suggested.

"The study may provide novel insights allowing development of tailor-made anti-inflammatory based therapies reducing the burden of type 2 patients," said Alexander Rosendahl, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Diabetes Complication Biology at Novo Nordisk A/S, in Malov, Denmark, via a press release. "These novel treatments may prove to complement existing therapies such as insulin and GLP-1 analogues."

For this study, researchers examined mice with a specific type of immune cell that invades the diabetic pancreatic tissue during early states of the disease. They found that these inflammatory cells produce a large amount of pro-inflammatory proteins known as cytokines that directly contribute to the elimination of insulin-producing beta cells found in the pancreas that result in the disease.

Researchers obese mice that spontaneously developed diabetes to healthy ones. The mice were followed from the start of a very young age and showed early signs of the disease through complication in various organs via presence of macrophages in beta cells of the pancreas and spleen. All of the diabetic participants showed significant modulations compared to the healthy ones.

"The more researchers learn about obesity and type 2 diabetes, the more it appears that inflammation plays a critical role in the progression and severity of these conditions," said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the publication, via the release. "This study sheds light on how a key inflammatory cell is connected to disease and what might go wrong when someone has type 2 diabetes. The knowledge gained from such studies offers hope that new immune-based therapies could be developed to mitigate the severity of such dieseases."

More information regarding the study can be found via the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.