Sensory Nerve Discovery In Diabetes Opens Door To New Treatment Strategies

Source: The Hospital For Sick Children
Date: December 17, 2006

Summary:

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the University of Calgary and The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine report in the December 15 issue of the journal Cell they have discovered that diabetes is controlled by abnormalities in the nerve endings that sense pain called the sensory nociceptor (pain-related) in the pancreatic islet cells that produce insulin. This discovery, a breakthrough that has long been the elusive goal of diabetes research, has led to new treatment strategies for diabetes, achieving reversal of the disease without severe, toxic immunosuppression.