As we age, the immune system begins to shift into a heightened state of alert, dialing up inflammation and running out of certain immune cells. Nurses addressed a nursing home patient showing coronavirus symptoms in Sant Andreu de la Barca, Spain, earlier this year.Credit…David Ramos/Getty Images By Veronique Greenwood Covid-19 patients who are 80 or older...
Researchers used a new approach to understand how insulin, the hormone connected to diabetes, changes metabolism. Using lab-grown mouse fat cells, they identified 10 reactions that are regulated by a small number of enzymes. “It was surprising that regulation of only a few key enzymes was sufficient to induce changes in overall insulin-induced glucose metabolism,”...
by Jeff Hansen, University of Alabama at Birmingham Type 1 diabetes, or T1D, is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune cells—led by inflammatory macrophages—attack and destroy the beta cells of the pancreas that produce insulin. Researchers have long tried to unravel the signaling that provokes this attack. One of the less-studied forms of signaling...
SALK INSTITUTE IMAGE: FROM LEFT: REUBEN SHAW AND JEANINE VAN NOSTRAND. The diabetes drug metformin–derived from a lilac plant that’s been used medicinally for more than a thousand years–has been prescribed to hundreds of millions of people worldwide as the frontline treatment for type 2 diabetes. Yet scientists don’t fully understand how the drug is...
A new study finds women with diabetes and significant levels of calcium in their coronary arteries have higher rates of death from cardiovascular disease and all causes than their male counterparts. Published in the American Diabetes Association journal, Diabetes Care, researchers from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center compared...
Researchers from the University of Tsukuba show that the wives of men with major cardiovascular disease risk factors, namely hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia, are more prone to suffer from the same disorders UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA Tsukuba, Japan – Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing nearly 18 million people annually, which is...
by Ellen Goldbaum, University at Buffalo This image shows axons in vitro 24 hours after injury. The presence of Schwann cells (nuclei in cyan) helped maintain the integrity of axons (in magenta and yellow). Credit: Elisabetta Babetto, HJKRI Axons are long, finger-like projections of neurons that transmit critical signals throughout the nervous system. But because...
by Joslin Diabetes Center Microscopic images of the various types of fat tissues developed in mice after transplantation. Top panels show the fat tissue’s general morphology, and the bottom panels are the tissue sections stained with hUCP1 (red color), which is unique for brown fat cells. These images show that while the HUMBLE fat cells...
by Washington University School of Medicine Gastric bypass surgery is the most effective therapy to treat or reverse type 2 diabetes in severely obese patients. A longstanding theory has suggested that the operation may have unique, weight loss-independent effects in treating diabetes. But new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates...
DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUER DIABETESFORSCHUNG DZD Healthy people – especially women – with elevated levels of the heart failure marker NT-proBNP have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. However, if these people develop diabetes nonetheless, they are more likely to suffer from macro- and microvascular complications such as heart attack, stroke, or severe damage...
