insulin plants. Diabetes develops when the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas die.
It warms the heart of a mother to see her child has inherited his nose, hair, or smile. But could it also have transmitted a trigger for diabetes? Researchers working with mice now suggest that insulin antibodies transferred from mother to child during pregnancy and breastfeeding may trigger type 1 diabetes in some children.
Type 1 diabetes develops when the body's immune system mistakenly kills insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Insulin is a hormone that allows cells to absorb blood sugar. Without enough insulin, sugar levels in the blood increases unchecked and eventually damage every system in the body - resulting in kidney failure, heart disease, poor circulation, and blindness. symptoms of diabetes are brought out after 60% to 80% of beta cells have been destroyed. full blown diabetes is marked by quantities of antibodies specific for insulin in the blood increases. Such antibodies are proteins created by the immune system in response to the destruction of beta cells, but until now, they were considered as secondary effects of the disease.
Surgeon Ali Naji and his team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia asked whether specific insulin antibodies passed from mother to child could revive the autoimmune response causes diabetes. The team implanted two days old embryos of diabetes mouse strain prone in either normal home moms or prone diabetes. Only 15% of pups birthed and nursed by normal adoptive mothers eventually developed diabetes compared with 73% of pups birthed and nursed by adoptive mothers prone diabetes, the researchers report in the April issue of Nature Medicine .
to study the potential role of antibodies passed from mother to offspring, the team then developed diabetes-prone mice that did not make antibodies against insulin. When females mated with males prone diabetes, their young were much less likely to develop diabetes than are puppies prone diabetic mothers who pass on antibodies.
This research brings a new controversy in the study of diabetes, says diabetologist Mark Atkinson of the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville. previous human studies have shown that fathers genes can predispose their children to diabetes, while this study clearly demonstrates a maternal influence as well. In addition, these results suggest that, in some cases, but not all, antibodies play a pathogenic role in the development of diabetes. "It is simply a fantastic study," said Atkinson.
Related Sites
American Diabetes Association
Diabetes Dictionary
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