Hormone Found in Diabetics May Play Role in Disease, Researcher Says
Further study of a newly isolated hormone found in the pancreases of diabetics may lead to new treatments for the most common form of the disease, a scientist says. ``We have a lot of evidence that this is likely to be, if not the final cause, at least a major part of the disease process,'' said New Zealand biochemist Garth Cooper. The research ``opens the door to the scientific study of the disease at a level that wasn't possible before and potentially the mechanisms that we uncover may be very wide ranging,'' he said. Cooper, who has been working with scientists at Oxford University, described the hormone research this week at the 13th International Diabetes Federation Congress in Sydney, Australia. In his presentation, Cooper said the hormone, dubbed ``amylin,'' was normally undetectable but found in high levels in the pancreases of diabetics. Amylin appears to be responsible for the obesity, reduced insulin secretion and the reduced effectiveness of insulin observed in Type II diabetes, he said. Currently, obesity is considered a major contributor to the disease rather than a result of it. Insulin normally controls the level of blood sugar. In Type II diabetes, also called non-insulin-dependent diabetes, the body's insulin is not effective and blood sugar levels rise too high. Complications can include kidney disease, blindness, and gangrene that requires amputations. Type II diabetes afflicts the majority of the nation's estimated 11 million diabetics, according to the American Diabetes Association. It often can be controlled through diet and exercise. Cooper said researchers hope to develop substances that block amylin's secretion or action, opening the possibility of treatment. He also said reseachers hope to develop a test to detect diabetes very early in its development. The new work is ``a very important finding'' if amylin truly blocks insulin and appears in abnormal amounts in diabetics, F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, an authority on Type II diabetes, said Friday. Scientists already knew of another pancreatic hormone that blocks insulin, but it is not found in abnormal levels in diabetics, said Pi-Sunyer, director of the endocrinology, diabetes and nutrition division at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York.
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