Will there ever be a cure for diabetes?

What do we know about diabetes?

• There are two types of diabetes type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes• Diabetes causes blood sugar to become too high• Untreated diabetes can cause serious complications

• In 2010 there were 3.1 million people with diabetes. 15% have type 1 diabetes and around 85% have type 2. • How many people have each type of diabetes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOowX3OwFuk

• Type 1 diabetes-3.1 million ÷100 = 0.031 million (<- this is 1%)0.031million x 15 = (x by 15 to get 15%)0.465 million or 465,000- ALMOST HALF A MILLION

• Type 2 diabetes – 3.1 million ÷100 = 0.031 million (<- this is 1%)0.031 million x 85 = (x by 85 to get 85%)2.635 million or 2,635,000

• And research predicts these numbers are rising rapidly.

How diabetes is treated

Type 1 Diabetes• Onset can be fast• Most diagnosed when young• Insulin dependant – these

patients require insulin injections to maintain normal blood sugar

Type 2 Diabetes• Onset is slower• Mainly in older and obese

people• Can be managed with diet and

exercise.

There are problems with using insulin injections as a treatment for type 1 diabetes? Could you think of any?

- Inconvenient

- Treatment not a cure

- Not a continuous supply, the body naturally releases insulin in exactly the right amounts when it is required

What do scientists measure to see if their diabetes experiments have worked?

• This test is the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT)

• The test measures changes in blood glucose levels after a controlled amount of glucose has been eaten (called a glucose load). • The patient must fast (not eat any food) for 12 hours before the test• Blood sugar is measured at 30 minute intervals for 2 hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMMpeLLgdgY

The data provided is based on human results of the OGTT.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) say a person without diabetes should have:• Fasting value (before test): under 6.1 mM and normal values are from

3.9 to 5.5 mM• At 2 hours: under 7.8 mM

Are any of the data sets in this group diabetic?

Oral Glucose Tolerance Test OGTT

Bloo

d G

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se (m

M)

Time (minutes) 0 30 60 90 120

Can you label each point on your graph to show what might be happening?

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Oral Glucose Tolerance test in 4 humans

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Blood Glucose (mM)

Time (minutes)

Scientists are looking for a cure

• Stem Cells – cells with the ability to turn into any cells in the body.

• Using stem cells scientists are trying to make pancreas cells which can be transplanted into diabetic patients.

• In the end this could offer a cure

Gao et al. 2014

Things are not always as straight forward as they seem in the world of science.

To compare these graphs we need to convert the units.

To convert from mg/dl to mM we must times by 0.0555

Raikwar, S. P. and Zavazava, N. (2011).

Time Blood Glucose mg/dl Blood Glucose mM

0 100 5.5530 210 11.6560 175 9.7190 110 6.10120 115 6.38

Time Blood Glucose mg/dl Blood Glucose mM0 390 21.6430 710 39.4060 825 45.7990 900 49.95120 1000 55.5

Time Blood Glucose mg/dl Blood Glucose mM0 200 11.130 310 17.260 350 19.4290 210 11.66120 195 10.82

Things are not always as straight forward as they seem in the world of science.

To compare these graphs we need to convert the units.

To convert from mg/dl to mM we must times by 0.0555

Raikwar and Zavazava (2011)

Compare this graph to the one you have produced for a human OGTT

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OGTT in mice

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Oral Glucose Tolerance test in 4 humans

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OGTT in mice

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Are there many similarities?What are the differences?

Could you think of any reasons for these differences?

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OGTT in mice

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What are the benefits of using mice models?

What are the drawbacks of using a mouse model to experiment on human disease?

References

• Raikwar, S. P. and Zavazava, N. (2011). Spontaneous in vivo differentiation of embryonic stem cell-derived pancreatic endoderm-like cells corrects hyperglycemia in diabetic mice. Transplantation 91:11.• Gao, X., Song, L., Shen, K., Wang, H., Niu, W., Qin, X. and Qian, M.

(2014). Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells promote the repair of islets from diabetic mice through paracrine actions. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology 388:41-50.• World Health Organisation. www.who.int/

http://www.who.int/diabetes/action_online/basics/en/index1.html

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Oral Glucose Tolerance test in 4 humans

Person 1 Person 2 Person3 Person 4

Blood Glucose (mM)

Time (minutes)