Transcription factor churns vicious cycle behind type 2 diabetes

[Northerner]

A transcription factor activated by too much sugar in the blood is a driver of an implacable cycle of too little insulin resulting in too much sugar in the blood that, in turn, causes failure of beta cells to make enough insulin which results in even higher blood sugar and type 2 diabetes, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in an online report in the journal Diabetologia.

That transcription factor ? carbohydrate response element binding protein or ChREBP ? offers the possibility of a target for drug treatment for the disorder that affects as many as 25 million people in the United States, said Dr. Lawrence Chan, director of the federally funded Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center at BCM and chief of the section of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism in the BCM departments of medicine, molecular and cellular biology and biochemistry.

http://www.bcm.edu/news/item.cfm?newsID=5603

 

[Vicsetter]

Does that study not imply that T2 diabetes is the failure to produce insulin, whereas a lot of us T2s know that it is insulin resistance that is a major factor, hence the vast amounts of insulin I have to inject.

 

[Mark T]

I remember reading a meta-study a while back which pretty much defined Type 2 and a number of conditions that are grouped as one condition. Some elements resulted in mostly insulin resistance and some is mostly lack of insulin )and everything in between it seems).

This is probably why there is such a myriad of treatments and methods for controlling Type 2.