REPLACING WHITE RICE WITH BROWN RICE OR OTHER WHOLE GRAINS MAY REDUCE DIABETES RISK

Replacing white rice with brown rice or other whole grains may reduce diabetes risk

World - In a new study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that eating five or more servings of white rice per week was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. In contrast, eating two or more servings of brown rice per week was associated with a lower risk of the disease.

Much of the world's population consumes rice. These results reflect the fact that white rice is refined and then processed. Therefore, people must prefer the brown rice. Other whole grains, like wheat, promise even greater benefits. Regular consumption reduces the risk of diabetes by 36%.

This study points out how important it is for health to eat whole grains. This must obviously be done in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle, both on the eating habits of physical activity.

Source: Harvard School of Public Health
Link:http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2010-releases/white-rice-brown-rice-whole-grains-diabetes.html

Journal Reference:
Qi Sun; Donna Spiegelman; Rob M. van Dam; Michelle D. Holmes; Vasanti S. Malik; Walter C. Willett; Frank B. Hu. White Rice, Brown Rice, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in US Men and Women. Arch Intern Med, 2010; 170 (11): 961-969
Link: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/170/11/961

BLACK TEA MAY FIGHT DIABETES

Black Tea May Fight Diabetes
Black tea was hitherto known for its antioxidant properties, stimulating the immune system or more recently as an anti-hypertensive, another property may well be added to the list. Black tea for use in the management of diabetes in a Chinese study published in the Journal of Food Science (reference below).

After water tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world. Researchers at the Chinese Tianjin Key Laboratory have analyzed the level of polysaccharides in green tea, oolong and black to determine if they could be used to treat diabetes. Polysaccharides are carbohydrates including starch and cellulose that could help diabetics because it delays the absorption of glucose.

Researchers found that among the three types of tea, the polysaccharide content in black tea had the inhibitory properties of glucose strongest. The researchers also found that the polysaccharide content in black tea had the highest property capital of free radicals, these compounds play a role in the development of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and certain cancers.

"Great efforts are made to the search for effective inhibitors of glucose derived from natural products,

Haixia Chen explained, the researcher who led the study.

"There is a possibility of using polysaccharides of black tea in the management of diabetes.

says.
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Reference:
Item: Physicochemical Properties and Antioxidant Capacity of 3 Polysaccharides from Green Tea, Oolong Tea and Black Tea
Authors: Haixia Chen, Zhishuang Qu, Lingling Fu, Peng Dong and Zhang Xin
Journal Publication: Journal of Food Science
DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2009.01231.x
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Source: Science Daily News

IMPORTANT STEP TOWARDS CURE DIABETES THROUGH EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS

Important Step Towards Cure Diabetes Through Embryonic Stem Cells
American researchers have managed to make embryonic stem cells behave as cells of the pancreas can produce insulin. Published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, this study marks an important step in using stem cells to treat diabetes.

Treating diabetes is a promise based on embryonic stem cells, scientists are trying to actually find a formula to transform embryonic stem cells into pancreatic beta cells, these cells produce insulin in response to the presence of sugar in the blood, they are defective or absent in patients suffering from type 1 diabetes. This feat would allow patients to produce insulin again, but researchers have not succeeded so far.

However, Dr. Emmanuel Baetge and colleagues at the biotech company Novocell of San Diego (California) managed to make embryonic stem cells behave like pancreatic beta cells in mice. For years this group has indeed tried, using the same factors that induce pancreas development in the embryo, transform embryonic stem cells into pancreatic cells in a petridish. They had previously reported that they were able to obtain insulin-secreting cells but these cells do not respond to the presence of glucose, gold is an essential characteristic of pancreatic beta cells.

The researchers then stepped back and instead of trying to obtain mature pancreatic cells cultured in a petridish, they used cells "immature" still under development. These immature cells called the endoderm are equivalent to cells of the pancreas of an embryo aged 6 to 9 weeks. They transplanted these human stem cells that had not completed their development in a mouse, hoping the animal would produce the missing factors to complete the development of the organ. One month after transplantation the researchers were able to detect C-peptide of human origin (this protein is a derivative of insulin production). Two months after transplantation, the mice increased the production of human C-peptide response to glucose, demonstrating thsat the transplanted cells were indeed functional. Finally the researchers damaged beta cells of mice with a toxin. This treatment usually makes the diabetic mice, except that in this case the mouse does not become diabetic showing that the transplanted cells could replace pancreatic beta cells defective.

Other researchers working in this field readily acknowledge that this study is a breakthrough in the fight against diabetes. Dr. Baetge moreover said that the company Novocell was in contact with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the U.S. authority responsible for regulating food and drug) to determine what additional security tests were needed before proceeding clinical trials on humans.

Dr. Teresa Ku of the Beckman Research Institute in Duarte (California) who also works in this area recognizes that this work is very important in this research field. She said the best solution would be to achieve fully differentiated cells in a culture dish.

Source: ScienceNOW Daily News

CURE DIABETES : HOPE TO TRANSPLANT PANCREATIC CELLS

Cure Diabetes : Hope To Transplant Pancreatic Cells
U.S. researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed a technique for transplanting pancreatic cells secreting insulin, which causes only a very moderate response of the immune system. This discovery could have important repercussions on how to treat type 1 diabetes. This work was published in the online version of the journal Gene Therapy.

The type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease incurable. In patients suffering from this disease, the immune system attacks the beta cells producing insulin in the pancreas. Insulin helps to lower blood glucose (sugar) in blood. People with type 1 diabetes must constantly monitor their blood sugar and need daily injections of insulin.

Transplantation of pancreatic cells represents a promising alternative. Cells taken from deceased donors are injected into the patient. These new cells replace destroyed cells. The disadvantage of this method is that patients must take powerful immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection. Most transplant patients still end up rejecting the transplanted cells.

In this study the researchers have successfully transplanted cells make invisible recipient's immune system and protecting the rejection. They managed this by using the natural usability of a virus (adenovirus) to escape the immune system. Pancreatic cells producing insulin were transfect with three genes of adenovirus.

These modified cells were then transplanted to diabetic mice. These transplanted mice were able to maintain glucose levels in normal blood until three months after transplantation. In normal cells grafted restore normal blood sugar levels but only for a few days.

Professor Harris Goldstein, who is the principal investigator of the study, acknowledges that the concept is valid but admits he must improve technology in achieving a combination of all genes that prevent rejection.

Source: EurekAlert

Diabetes: The Activation Of A Specific Gene Transforms Cells Into Pancreatic Beta Cells Secreting Insulin

When Cells Become Alpha Beta
Diabetes type 1 is characterized by loss of pancreatic beta cells that produce the hormone insulin. Find how to restore these cells and their function is a major concern of scientists. With activation of a specific gene called Pax4, a team of Franco-German (1) has succeeded in transforming some cells in pancreatic beta cells secreting insulin. This work has been published in the scientific journal Cell (reference below).

The type 1 diabetes is a disease affecting one in three hundred and is characterized by loss of pancreatic beta cells synthesize the hormone insulin. It follows a rise in blood glucose which is conventionally treated by daily injections of insulin. However, because of variations in blood glucose caused mainly by food intake and physical activity, significant vascular complications can occur with time and result in amputation, blindness or even death. It is therefore necessary to find alternatives to treat type 1 diabetes.

A single gene, called Pax4, can change alpha cells, on left, into insulin-producing beta cells, on right, in lab mice.

In this context, by using a mouse model, researchers from Inserm showed they can literally transform some cells of the pancreatic alpha cells called beta cells synthesize the hormone insulin. This approach involves the forced activation of a single gene called Pax4 in all alpha cells. The results also demonstrate that alpha cells are continually reclaimed and converted into beta cells, leading, in this case, a massive increase number of beta cells. These are functional and can handle a type 1 diabetes induced chemically.

It is important to note that although these results were very promising obtained in mice and now need to be validated in humans.

"If these findings are confirmed in humans, then we would have an abundant source of cells in the body converts beta cells producing insulin. We would then discover how to force, but also control, conversion of it chemically "

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Notes:
(1) team led by Patrick Collombat (Inserm Unit 636 "Genetics of normal and pathological development") and Ahmed Mansouri (Max Planck Institute - Germany)
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Reference:
Article: The Ectopic Expression of Pax4 in the Mouse Pancreas Converts Progenitor Cells into Subsequently α and β Cells
Authors: Patrick Collombat, Xiaobo Xu, Philip Ravassard, Beatriz Sosa-Pineda, Sebastian Dussaud Nils Billestrup, Ole D. Madsen, Palle Serup, Harry Heimberg and Ahmed Mansouri
Journal Publication: Cell
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Source: Inserm

HOPE FOR DIABETES WITH STEM CELLS

Hope for diabetes cure with stem cells
Diabetic patients, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, were able to stop insulin injections through treatment with stem cells. The tests, conducted by a team of American scientists and breziliens were conducted on 15 patients recently diagnosed with the disease, they follow the immunosuppressive treatment and were then transfused with stem cells from their blood.

14 of 15 volunteers were no longer resort to insulin injections - some for several years - after treatment. Indeed one of the patients was able to provide injections for 35 months while 4 other patients will be provided for at least 21 months. The treatment was effective immediately after the transfusion of stem cells for 11 of the 15 volunteers who were able to dispense with insulin injections.

This form of therapy is known as the transplantation (or graft) of autologous stem cells. This method already shown encouraging result for the treatment of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease or lupus.

Mechanisms of actions not elucidated
Stem cells, there are several types, are undifferentiated cells which retain the ability to differentiate into different types of adult cells. Stem cells used in this study are called multipotent i.e they are able to generate several cell types. Other types of stem cells are totipotent stem cells (the only ones that can give rise to a whole organism), pluripotent (able to generate most or all tissues of the adult body) and unipotentes (capable of producing a single type of cell ).

The researchers do not know by what precise mechanisms of these cells could act, several hypotheses have been advanced.

The first is that these cells have reconstituted the immune system does not attack cells of the pancreas since insulin production is ensured by this cells.

A second possibility is that cells have reformed new cells of the pancreas to produce insulin.

Finally another possibility is that these cells were able to create a mechanism-unknown-protecting pancreatic cells from destruction.

Preliminary Studies
Take this study with all precautions. It is a small study of volunteers monitoring was not done on a very long period. In addition, the study did not compare patients who received this treatment to patients not receiving treatment or who received an alternative treatment. Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago who participated in the study points out, it does not cure or breakthrough, this is just a step forward. British experts believe that such therapy requires atleast 5 to 8 years researches before it becomes widespread.

Type 1 diabetes also known as insulin dependent diabetes (IDDM) or juvenile diabetes, results from destruction of pancreatic cells (islets of Langherans) producing the hormone insulin. It represents 10% of cases of diabetes is treated with insulin.

Sources:
BBC Health
Credit image: HowStuffWorks