Diabetes Research and Treatment may Be Helped by Discovery of New Pathway

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Miami University have discovered a new signal pathway which, according to them, will eventually give new impetus to diabetes research and treatment.

A new signaling pathway that might help in diabetes treatment and research has been discovered by scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Miami University.

Led by Per-Olof Berggren, professor of experimental endocrinology at Karolinska Institutet, the team found that cells in the pancreas cooperate - signal - in a way hitherto unknown.

The aim of the project was to find out how the healthy body regulates glucose concentrations in the blood.

Scientists have known for a long time that glucose is regulated with the help of hormones in the pancreas, which is to say that pancreatic beta cells produce insulin, which reduces sugar levels, and that alpha cells produce glucagon, which boosts them.

This glucose balance must be kept within a very narrow interval, and we need both insulin and glucagon to remain in good health.

"A person with low blood sugar levels feels poorly and faint; a person with excessively high blood sugar levels gets diabetes," said Prof Berggren.

Much more is known about insulin secretion than glucagon secretion, and so Professor Berggren's team focused on the latter.

They discovered that alpha cells also secreted glutamate, which facilitates glucagon release and makes it more efficient.

The scientists are working on the hypothesis that when glucose levels are raised in a healthy person, the beta cells become active and start to release insulin, which reduces sugar concentrations in the blood, upon which the alpha cells then start to secrete glucagon and glutamate.

In this context, glutamate acts as a positive signal that tells the alpha cells that it is time to accelerate the production of glucagon to prevent glucose levels from falling too low.

"It's this signal pathway that is our discovery. This interaction between beta cells and alpha cells is crucial for normal blood sugar regulation," said Prof Berggren.

The discovery also means that when the beta cells fail to produce insulin properly, as is the case in diabetes, the alpha cells' signal path is also blocked, which upsets the glucose balance even more.

The team hope that their discovery of the signal pathway will eventually give new impetus to clinical diabetes research.

"Maybe we'll be able to achieve better blood sugar regulation in diabetes patients if we target more the glucagon/glutamate rather than just the insulin", said Prof Berggren.

The study is published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Source-ANI
RAS/L