Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
“When you are diabetic, you have to check your blood sugar levels. The doctor tells you to do it four times a day. So you prick your finger. A tiny drop of blood appears. You put it on the tester and within five seconds you get the result,” says Timothée, who suffers from diabetes.
Normally, it’s the job of the pancreas to control the levels of sugar in the blood by producing a hormone called insulin. Insulin is normally secreted by the so-called beta cells, but in people with diabetes, these cells are either attacked and destroyed by the immune system or unable to produce sufficient amounts of insulin.
“Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease where the immune system attacks the beta cells. The cells die and the production of insulin stops altogether. In type 2 diabetes, the beta cells are present in the pancreas but they don’t function properly and no longer produce enough insulin,” says diabetologist Myriam Cnop from the Université libre de Bruxelles.
For the past thirty years, researchers around the world have been trying to reproduce these cells in laboratories in order to study and understand beta-cell dysfunction.
Today, a team led by Professor Raphaël Scharfmann at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) may have found the answer.
http://www.euronews.com/2015/01/06/diabetes-could-bacteria-provide-a-cure/
Normally, it’s the job of the pancreas to control the levels of sugar in the blood by producing a hormone called insulin. Insulin is normally secreted by the so-called beta cells, but in people with diabetes, these cells are either attacked and destroyed by the immune system or unable to produce sufficient amounts of insulin.
“Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease where the immune system attacks the beta cells. The cells die and the production of insulin stops altogether. In type 2 diabetes, the beta cells are present in the pancreas but they don’t function properly and no longer produce enough insulin,” says diabetologist Myriam Cnop from the Université libre de Bruxelles.
For the past thirty years, researchers around the world have been trying to reproduce these cells in laboratories in order to study and understand beta-cell dysfunction.
Today, a team led by Professor Raphaël Scharfmann at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) may have found the answer.
http://www.euronews.com/2015/01/06/diabetes-could-bacteria-provide-a-cure/