Current Diabetes Reviews - Volume 5, Issue 4, 2009

The mechanism of dead-in-bed syndrome (DBS), a rare but devastating condition that mainly affects young type 1 diabetes patients, remains mysterious. A new theory is proposed to explain this syndrome. This theory suggests that repeated episodes of hypoglycaemia-induced adaptation in orexin-A neurons cause (i) defective awakening and (ii) hypotonia of upper airway muscles during sleep. Consequently, due to the co Read More

FGF21 is a novel member of the FGFs family, is mainly expressed in liver and it functions as a potent activator of glucose uptake on adipocytes. When over expressed in transgenic mice, it protects animals from diet-induced obesity and its administration to diabetic rodents and monkeys lowers blood glucose and triglyceride levels. Recently, increased levels of FGF21 have been identified as an independent risk factor relat Read More

The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes, a disease difficult to treat and expensive to manage, is increasing rapidly worldwide. It is also known that lifestyle, and particularly dietary habits, play an important role in the development of diabetes. Adherence to a healthy dietary pattern, like the Mediterranean diet, exerts a beneficial role regarding the development of diabetes. Additionally certain individual food groups and comp Read More

The prevalence of obesity and its associated disorders [e.g., insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD)] has seen a rapid increase in recent years. As such, understanding the mechanisms underlying dietinduced insulin resistance has been a topic of interest. In line with this notion, postprandial oxidative stress has received considerable attention over the past several years due to its involvement in the eti Read More

It has long been recognized that the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) identifies a population of young women at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in the future. In recent years, however, a series of studies have revealed that antepartum glucose tolerance screening, a standard element of current obstetrical care instituted for the purpose of detecting GDM, may provide previously-unrecogn Read More

Type 2 diabetes mellitus increases the risk of cerebro/cardiovascular events, since this disease leads to the development of premature atherosclerosis and atherothrombosis associated with diabetes accelerates diabetic macroangiopathy. Microparticles (MPs) released from cells (MPs) may play a role in the normal hemostatic response to vascular injury and a role in clinical diseases because they express phosphol Read More

All forms of diabetes are increasing in prevalence, but with the advent of the obesity epidemic, we now face the prospect of an increasing number of women conceiving whilst taking traditional oral antidiabetic agents (OADs). This is also further complicated by the availability of new incretin-based therapies, the dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-IV) inhibitors and glucagon-like-1 receptor (GLP-1R) analogues. Original concerns regar Read More

The metabolic syndrome consists of obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, and hypertension. Its clinical outcomes are stroke, myocardial infarction, and type 2 diabetes. Each of these is more frequent in African- Americans than in Caucasians. This is surprising since most studies indicate that the incidence of the metabolic syndrome is lower in African-American than Caucasian adults. There is growing evid Read More

GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) is a peptide hormone secreted from endocrine cells in the intestinal mucosa in response to meals. The major effects of GLP-1 are to increase glucose-induced insulin secretion and reduce glucagon release, but GLP-1 also inhibits gastric emptying rate and reduces appetite and bodyweight in obese subjects. In vivo studies using animal models of type 2 diabetes and in vitro studies using hu Read More