Close X
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
ADVT 
Health

How liver can improve diabetes management

Darpan News Desk Darpan, 14 Nov, 2014 11:12 AM
  • How liver can improve diabetes management
Finding a way to stimulate glucose accumulation in the liver could help manage diabetes and obesity, shows a new research, paving the way for new therapies to fight these increasingly common disorders.
 
The liver stores excess glucose, sugar, in the form of glycogen - chains of glucose - which is later released to cover body energy requirements.
 
Diabetic patients do not accumulate glucose well in the liver and this is one of the reasons why they suffer from hyperglycemia, that is to say, their blood sugar levels are too high.
 
“We have to find treatments to increase hepatic glucose because of its positive effect in diabetes and obesity,” said Joan Guinovart, head of the study from Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) in Spain.
 
“It is interesting to observe that what happens in the liver has direct effects on appetite. Here we reveal what occurs at the molecular level,” Guinovart explained.
 
The researchers questioned why mice that accumulated most glycogen in the liver did not gain weight in spite of having access to an appetising diet.
 
In addition to observing that these animals ate less, the scientists found that the brains of these animals showed scarce appetite-stimulating molecules but rather many appetite-suppressing ones.
 
The key to the liver-brain link is ATP, the molecule used by all living organisms to provide cells with energy and which is commonly altered in diabetes and obesity, the researchers found.
 
Nov 14 is World Diabetes Day. 
 
The World Health Organisation estimates that 382 million people worldwide currently live with diabetes and for 2035 it forecasts that one in every 10 people will have this disease.
 
The study appeared in the journal Diabetes.

MORE Health ARTICLES

Honey Can Destroy Harmful Fungus, Save Lives

Honey Can Destroy Harmful Fungus, Save Lives
Researchers from Britain have identified the effect of honey used since ancient times for the treatment of several diseases, on pathogenic fungi that can cause devastating infections in vulnerable people.

Honey Can Destroy Harmful Fungus, Save Lives

Walnuts can slow down prostate cancer growth

Walnuts can slow down prostate cancer growth
“While they (walnuts) are high in fat, their fat does not drive prostate cancer growth. In fact, walnuts do just the opposite when fed to mice,” lead scientist and....

Walnuts can slow down prostate cancer growth

Tiny needles hold promise for two key eye diseases

Tiny needles hold promise for two key eye diseases
Needles too tiny to be seen with naked eyes can soon deliver drugs to specific areas relevant to two of the world's leading eye diseases - glaucoma and corneal....

Tiny needles hold promise for two key eye diseases

New Alzheimer's-related memory disorder found

New Alzheimer's-related memory disorder found
Alzheimer's disease now has a new cousin as an international team of researchers has determined criteria for a new neurological disorder called....

New Alzheimer's-related memory disorder found

Canada To Do Clinical Trial Of Ebola Vaccine, Far Away From Ebola Researchers

Canada To Do Clinical Trial Of Ebola Vaccine, Far Away From Ebola Researchers
TORONTO — A clinical trial of the made-in-Canada Ebola vaccine will be conducted in this country, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada announced Friday.

Canada To Do Clinical Trial Of Ebola Vaccine, Far Away From Ebola Researchers

Sloppy Contact Lens Use Is Driving More 1 Million Eye Infections Each Year

Sloppy Contact Lens Use Is Driving More 1 Million Eye Infections Each Year
NEW YORK — A new government report says sloppy care of contact lenses is a main reason for hundreds of thousands of eye infections each year.

Sloppy Contact Lens Use Is Driving More 1 Million Eye Infections Each Year

PrevNext