Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), which results in a baby having a low weight at birth, has been associated with the development of type 2 diabetes in adulthood. It has been suggested that this is because the expression of key genes is altered during fetal development and that this affects disease susceptibility during the later part of life. Evidence to support this hypothesis and indicating that the changes in gene expression might be permanent has now been provided by Rebecca Simmons and his colleagues, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, using a rat model of IUGR........

A JDRF collaboration between Johns Hopkins scientists and Genentech has shown that a drug for the therapy of diabetic eye disease haccording toformed better in clinical trials than the current standard therapy using laser surgery. These findings, representing the six-month end-point evaluation of the READ-2 clinical trial coordinated by The Johns Hopkins University, were presented Monday at the 2008 Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida........

Americas tweens more than doubled their use of type-2 diabetes medications between 2002 and 2005, with girls between 10 and 14 years of age showing a 166 percent increase. The likely cause: Obesity, which is closely linked to Type 2 diabetes. The finding is included in a study of chronic medicine use in children 5 to 19 reported Wednesday, Nov. 7 at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association by scientists from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and School of Public Health and pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts. In addition to diabetes, utilization patterns for blood pressure, cholesterol, asthma and depression medications were also examined........

There are no high quality data to assess how well dietary therapys for type 2 diabetes work in people who have just been told they have the disease, but there is evidence that taking on exercise seems to be one way of improving blood sugar levels, as per the findings of a Cochrane Systematic Review........

Selenium, an antioxidant included in multivitamin tablets thought to have a possible protective effect against the development of type 2 diabetes, may actually increase the risk of developing the disease, an analysis by scientists at the University at Buffalo has shown. Results of a randomized clinical trial using 200 micrograms of selenium alone showed that 55 percent more cases of type 2 diabetes developed among participants randomized to receive selenium than in those who received a placebo pill........

A review of prior studies indicates that use of a class of medications known as incretin-based treatment, which act via certain pathways that affect glucose metabolism may provide modest effectiveness and favorable weight change outcomes for the therapy of type 2 diabetes and may represent an alternative to other hypoglycemic therapies, as per an article in the July 11 issue of JAMA........

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a potential new target for treating type 2 diabetes, as per a new study that appeared online this week in Nature. The target is a protein, along with its molecular partner, that regulates fat metabolism. "Over the last 10 years, we have begun to understand the importance of fat metabolism in diabetes," notes lead author Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD, the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at Penn and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Type 2 diabetics are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease because they also have disorders in fat metabolism as a result of obesity and abnormal insulin action." Birnbaum is also the Associate Director of the Type 2 Diabetes Unit for Penn's Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism........

Research to date has been inconclusive on whether drinking sugar-sweetened beverages between meals increases childrens risk of becoming overweight. Scientists at the University of Ottawa Institute of Population Health say sugar-sweetened drinks can have a negative effect on pre-school children. The scientists studied the frequency of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption between meals of more than 1,900 children living in Quebec, Canada........

One in three American children born in 2000 will develop type II diabetes, as per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A new study at the University of Missouri-Columbia says that acute exercise - as little as 15 minutes a day - can have a profound influence on preventing and fighting the disease........

Young adults who often purchase their own food and prepare meals at home eat fast food less often, eat more fruits and vegetables and have better overall diet quality than those who are not involved in planning and cooking their meals, as per scientists at the University of Minnesota. The study surveyed more than 1,500 people ages 18 to 23 about their food purchasing and preparation habits and the quality of their diets. The scientists found 31 percent of those surveyed who reported high involvement in meal preparation also consume five servings of fruits or vegetables daily, compared with three percent of those who reported very low involvement in meal preparation. Eighteen percent of the "high participation" group met guidelines for consuming servings of deep-yellow or green vegetables, compared with just 2 percent of the "very low involvement" group........

Studies of a rare genetic condition that increases cancer risk have unveiled a potential therapy for metabolic syndrome, a common disorder that afflicts as a number of as one in every four American adults and puts them at sharply increased risk of type 2 diabetes and clogged arteries. Researchers know relatively little about metabolic syndrome, which is associated with a range of symptoms that include obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, low levels of good cholesterol and high blood sugar levels. The number of adults and children with the condition is rising sharply in industrial countries, and diagnoses are also increasing in developing countries like India and China as they adopt Western standards of living........

New data reported in the Nov. 24 issue of Science provide further support for a protocol to reverse type 1 diabetes in mice and new evidence that adult precursor cells from the spleen can contribute to the regeneration of beta cells. In 2001 and 2003, scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) demonstrated the efficacy of a protocol to reverse of type 1 diabetes in diabetic mice. Three studies from other institutions reported in the March 24, 2006 issue of Science confirmed that the MGH-developed protocol can reverse the underlying disease but were inconclusive on the role of spleen cells in the recovery of insulin-producing pancreatic islets. The new data from a study performed at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), published as a technical comment, provides additional confirmation of the ability to reverse type 1 diabetes and on the role of the spleen cells in islet regeneration........

Hearty feasts and couch-potato marathons are holiday traditions, but UT Southwestern Medical Center experts warn that packing on pounds and not exercising could be deadly for the 6 million Americans who have diabetes and don't even know it. Diabetes, a metabolic disorder linked with obesity, can be a silent killer because its symptoms aren't sudden, but build up over time and lead to heart disease or other maladies........

Parasite-infected dragonflies suffer the same metabolic disorders that have led to an epidemic of obesity and type-2 diabetes in humans, reveal the findings of research conducted at Penn State University that are due would be reported in the 5 December 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and also in the PNAS early online edition at www.pnas.org on 21 November. The discovery expands the known taxonomic breadth of metabolic disease and suggests that the study of microbes found in human intestines may provide a greater understanding of the root causes of human metabolic dysfunction........

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine scientists have observed that an enzyme called ACE2 may hold the potential to treat diabetic kidney disease, the most common form of kidney disease. In the laboratory, scientists led by Daniel Batlle, professor of medicine in the Feinberg School, chief of the nephrology/high blood pressure division and staff nephrologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, have found low levels of the ACE2 enzyme in the glomeruli of the kidneys of diabetic mice. When ACE2 was further decreased with an inhibitor drug, kidney disease worsened. Studies are now needed using compounds that increase the level of ACE2 in the kidneys of diabetic mice to see if it reverses or prevents kidney disease from developing, Batlle said........