Critical molecular link between inflammation and diabetes identified
More than 30 million Americans suffer from diabetes. It is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States. Nearly 80,000 people died directly from the disease, while for another quarter million, it was an underlying or contributing cause of death. The total cost of the disease in the US comes to nearly $250 billion. Nearly all of these cases are type 2 diabetes, which appears in adulthood. Type 1 appears in childhood, and is caused by the body's immune system attacking the cells that make insulin. Surprisingly, the underlying molecular mechanism for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes remains mysterious. Diabetes occurs when the body cannot metabolize glucose properly. Normally, the hormone insulin breaks down glucose. But in some people this process becomes increasingly inefficient, a phenomenon known as insulin resistance. Until now, researchers had not understood how insulin resistance turns into full-blown diabetes, in which the body is unable to metabolize sugar ...