Two transporters that deliver alternative energy sources to the eye may help delay retinal damage that can occur in diabetes, scientists say. The transporters, SMCT1 and SMCT2, can circumvent the eye's protective blood-retinal barrier, delivering energy sources lactate and ketone bodies to a healthy eye, says Dr. Pamela Martin, biochemist at the Medical College of Georgia........

La Jolla, CA With the help of genetically engineered mice whose livers turned into glowing light bulbs, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have illuminated the underpinnings of an insidious and growing health concern type II diabetes. In the study reported in the September 5 advanced online edition of Nature, the scientists report that a protein called TORC2 serves as a key biochemical control point linking feeding, insulin, and elevated blood sugar production in the liver. The findings highlight TORC2 and an enzyme called SIK2 as potential drug targets for treating type II diabetes........

Researchers at the leading Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now disclosed the mystery how the insulin-secreting cells maintain an appropriate number of ATP sensing ion channel proteins on their surface. This mechanism, which is described in the latest number of Cell Metabolism, explains how the human body can keep the blood glucose concentration within the normal range and thereby avoid the development of diabetes........

One route to a long and healthy life may be establishing the right balance in insulin signaling in the body and brain, as per new research from Children's Hospital Boston. The study, reported in the July 20 issue of Science, not only reinforces the value of exercising and eating in moderation, but also helps explain a paradox in longevity research........

New studies are needed to assess the trade-offs between potential benefits and potential harms when rosiglitazone is used by people with type 2 diabetes. This Cochrane Systematic Review analysed data from 18 trials that involved a total of 8432 people and found no evidence that rosiglitazone led to better patient outcomes when compared with other therapies. Diabetic control (as measured by levels of HbA1c) was no better in patients given rosiglitazone when in comparison to other antidiabetic drugs. Patient oriented outcomes such as mortality, diabetes related morbidity, or quality of life were not addressed in most studies........

A new Wesley Research Institute project aims to make it much easier for people to manager their Type 2 Diabetes by using community pharmacists. There are more than one million Australians with Type 2 Diabetes who are at an increased risk of developing serious health problems including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and blindness........

Umbilical cord blood may safely preserve insulin production in children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, as per findings from a small national pilot study presented Monday (June 25) at the American Diabetes Associations 67th Scientific Sessions in Chicago. University of Florida scientists sought to determine whether it is feasible to use a patients own cord blood stem cells to neutralize the bodys autoimmune attack on the pancreas and help restore the organs ability to make insulin, which regulates how the body uses sugar and other nutrients for energy........

A plate and cereal bowl with markers for proper portion sizes appear to help obese patients with diabetes lose weight and decrease their use of glucose-controlling medications, according to a report in the June 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Between 1960 and 2000, the proportion of U.S. adults who were obese increased from 13.4 percent to 30.9 percent, according to background information in the article. Most cases of type 2 diabetes can be attributed directly to obesity. Restricting calories has been shown to improve blood sugar control in diabetics, partially by contributing to weight loss. The increasing prevalence of obesity is paralleled by increasing portion sizes in the marketplace, the authors write. Portion sizes are an important determinant of energy intake; the number of calories ingested by subjects at a meal has been directly correlated with the serving size offered........

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a potential new target for treating type 2 diabetes, according to a new study that appeared online this week in Nature. The target is a protein, along with its molecular partner, that regulates fat metabolism. “Over the last 10 years, we have begun to understand the importance of fat metabolism in diabetes,” notes lead author Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD, the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at Penn and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “Type 2 diabetics are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease because they also have disorders in fat metabolism as a result of obesity and abnormal insulin action.” Birnbaum is also the Associate Director of the Type 2 Diabetes Unit for Penn’s Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism........

Scientists at Scholl College's Center for Lower Extremity Ambulatory Research (CLEAR) at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Leiden University in the Netherlands, and Texas AandM University have presented important new information that could help physicians and their patients predict dangerous recurrent wounds that precede amputations in persons with diabetes. The study, conducted over a several-year period, identified two simple items that helped predict recurrence........

Scientists at the Yale University School of Medicine have observed that patients with obstructive sleep apnea are at increased risk for developing of type II diabetes, independent of other risk factors. The findings are being presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference, on Monday, May 21........

Any photographer can vouch for the difficulty of capturing a clear picture of a moving target. When it comes to molecules, however, sometimes the motion is exactly what researchers want to see - for example, to understand the pathological protein mis-folding and assembly that seem to underlie a host of human disorders, including diabetes and Alzheimer's disease........

A glucosamine-like dietary supplement has been found to suppress the damaging autoimmune response seen in multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes mellitus, as per University of California, Irvine health sciences researchers. In studies on mice, Dr. Michael Demetriou and his colleagues with the UC Irvine Center for Immunology observed that N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), which is similar but more effective than the widely available glucosamine, inhibited the growth and function of abnormal T-cells that incorrectly direct the immune system to attack specific tissues in the body, such as brain myelin in MS and insulin-producing cells of the pancreas in diabetes. Findings from the study are published on the online version of the Journal of Biological Chemistry........

A new study sheds additional light on how erectile dysfunction (ED) interacts with diabetes. The study is another step in uncovering the link between the two disorders, and may lead to improved efficacy in therapys. The study, "Lack of Central Nitric Oxide Triggers Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetes," was conducted by Hong Zheng, William G. Mayhan, and Kaushik P. Patel, Departments of Cellular and Integrative Physiology; and Keshore R. Bidasee, Department of Pharmacology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE. The results appear in the March 2007 edition of the American Journal of Physiology Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, one of 11 peer-reviewed scientific publications issued monthly by The American Physiological Society (APS) (www.The-APS.org)........

Periodontal diseases may contribute to the progression to pre-diabetes, as per a new study that appears in the recent issue of the Journal of Periodontology. Pre-diabetes is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. The American Diabetes Association estimates 54 million people in the United States have pre-diabetes, and a significant portion of those people will develop Type 2 diabetes within 10 years........