Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
A team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center has found that a protein long believed to have a minor role in type 2 diabetes is, in fact, a central player in the development of the condition that affects nearly 26 million people in the United States alone and counts as one of the leading causes of heart disease, stroke and kidney, eye and nerve damage.
Working with mice, the scientists discovered that a protein called EPAC2 -- deemed a second-fiddle player up until now -- is actually an important regulator of insulin that appears to work by nudging insulin-secreting cells of the pancreas to ramp up production of the sugar-regulating hormone when the body needs it most. Until now, EPAC2 was suspected of playing a merely supporting role as a signaling molecule, but scientists remained uncertain why
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130411123508.htm
Working with mice, the scientists discovered that a protein called EPAC2 -- deemed a second-fiddle player up until now -- is actually an important regulator of insulin that appears to work by nudging insulin-secreting cells of the pancreas to ramp up production of the sugar-regulating hormone when the body needs it most. Until now, EPAC2 was suspected of playing a merely supporting role as a signaling molecule, but scientists remained uncertain why
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130411123508.htm