Category: Diabetes 101

For individuals with Type 1 diabetes, maintaining healthy blood sugar levels could be not only a necessity for long-term health, but also the key to staying mentally sharp. A study published in the online version of the journal “Diabetes” states that increased exposure to hyperglycemia — elevated levels of blood sugar — is associated with negative effects on brain size, including a decrease in whole brain gray matter. Meanwhile, hypoglycemia is associated with more severe decreases in occipital/parietal white matter volume.

The study was headed by Dana C. Perantie of the Washington University School of Medicine, located in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Perantie’s team analyzed physiological changes in brain regions in youths who had Type 1 diabetes when they were exposed to blood sugar levels on both the high and low ends of the spectrum. The control group for the study was comprised of the children’s siblings, who did not have Type 1 diabetes.

At baseline — the beginning of the study — each of the participants underwent brain neuroimaging. Doctors followed up with patients for two years, and patients underwent neuroimaging once again at the end of the follow-up period. Throughout the follow-up, a variety of glucose control measurements were recorded, including HbA1c levels, results from glucose meter readings, and self-reported episodes of severe hypoglycemia. After the neuroimaging was complete at the end of the follow-up, researchers studied whole brain and voxel-wise changes in the volume of gray and white matter in the study participants. Results were also adjusted for age, gender, and the age at which the patients were diagnosed with diabetes.

The findings showed no differences between patients with Type 1 diabetes and the control group in whole brain and voxel-wise brain volume throughout the two-year follow up. However, the patients in the group with Type 1 diabetes who had more hyperglycemia showed a significant decrease in whole gray brain matter than those who had less hyperglycemia. In addition, patients with Type 1 diabetes who experienced severe hypoglycemia showed significant decreases occipital/parietal white matter volume over both the control group and the group of Type 1 diabetics who had not experienced severe hypoglycemia.

“Within diabetes, exposure to hyperglycemia and severe hypoglycemia may result in subtle deviation from normal developmental trajectories of the brain,” commented the authors of the study.

The subject of changes in brain physiology related to Type 1 diabetes has been previously studied in previous research. A 2007 study published in the journal “Diabetes Care” used magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) to study differences in brain volume among children with Type 1 diabetes and their non-diabetic siblings, age 7 to 17. The study similarly found that volume of grey and white brain matter did not differ significantly between diabetics and non-diabetics, but patients who had a history of severe hypoglycemia displayed reduced gray matter volume in the left superior temporal region. Additionally, patients who had a history of hyperglycemia showed smaller white matter volume in the right posterior parietal region and larger gray matter volume in the right prefrontal region.

The authors concluded that “qualitatively different relationships were found between hypo- and hyperglycemia and regional brain volumes in youth with type 1 diabetes.” They also commented that future research would be necessary to determine what effect, if any, the changes in brain volume would have on cognitive function and whether further exposure to extreme blood sugar conditions would have additional effects on brain matter volume.

The Utah Obesity Study has provided the first prospective, long-term controlled trial on the effects of gastric bypass surgery. The trial discovered that the cardiometabolic improvements associated with recent gastric bypass surgery also persist over long periods of time.

Of the 1,156 morbidly obese participants the Utah Obesity Study, 418 underwent gastric bypass surgery. An additional 417 patients sought to undergo the bariatric procedure but were unable to do so, primarily because of insufficient health insurance. Another 321 patients from the Utah Health Family Tree program were selected to function as community controls.

Doctors followed-up with patients in the Utah Obesity Study for six years. At the end of the follow-up period, patients who had undergone gastric bypass surgery maintained significant total weight loss as well as significant improvements in metabolic and cardiovascular factors compared to the control group, who did not undergo the surgery.

Physical examinations were conducted of all the patients at baseline — the start of the study — then at two years and again at six years. Exams included a wide variety of tests, including interviews with a physician and detailed medical history; submaximal exercise treadmill test and electrocardiogram; resting electrocardiograms and echocardiograms; pulmonary function; limited polysomnography; resting and exercise blood pressure; anthropometry; resting metabolic rate; urinalysis; comprehensive blood tests; and questionnaires analyzing the diet, exercise, and quality of life of the study participants. According to Dr. Ted D. Adams of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, the six-year follow up with patients was “excellent,” with a 97% rate.

“In the surgical group, nearly all of the clinical measures improved significantly between the baseline and 2-year exams, and they remained significantly improved, compared with baseline at 6 years,” said Dr. Adams. The control groups made far less improvement than those who underwent the surgery, however: “The clinical variables in the combined control groups changed minimally if at all over the 6-year period,” continued Dr. Adams.

The group undergoing surgery showed significant weight loss that persisted throughout the six-year follow up, displaying a total weight reduction of 35 percent at two years out and 28 percent at six years out. In contrast, Dr. Adams noted, the control group displayed minimal weight loss.

The surgery group also fared better in diabetes remission at 75 percent at the six year mark, while the combined control groups were at 1 percent. At the end of the six-year follow-up, incidence of diabetes was at 2 percent for the surgery group and 16 percent for the non-surgery group.

Patients who received surgery appeared to display better cardiovascular health, with cardiac morphology measures being significantly improved just six months after surgery. Echocardiography results demonstrated reduced left atrial volume and left ventricular mass, both factors that could reduce the risk of heart failure related to obesity in the long term. Meanwhile, Dr. Adams reported that the control group displayed increased left atrial volume.

Additional improved health measures displayed by the group receiving gastric bypass surgery included reductions in waist circumference, heart rate, triglycerides, insulin resistance, systolic blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol that persisted through the end of the follow-up period. Higher levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were also reported in the surgery group.

Dr. Adams stated that the results only support previous research on the benefits of bariatric surgery in improving health conditions related to being overweight. The findings will continue to provide insights into the benefits of the surgery and their improvements in the long term.

Dr. Adams did not disclose any conflicts of interest.

A study conducted by researchers at Kaiser Permanente shows that those with Type 2 diabetes would be wise to work at improving their cholesterol. According to the findings of the study, raising HDL cholesterol — or “good” cholesterol — could be associated with a reduction in the risk of stroke and heart disease in Type 2 diabetics. The study was published in the online version of the “American Journal of Cardiology.”

Researchers arrived at their findings after reviewing medical records from 30,067 patients with Type 2 diabetes. The patients had their HDL cholesterol levels measured twice over a time period from 2001 to 2006, with the measurements being conducted from six to 24 months apart. The research team analyzed the records and reviewed the data for hospitalization due to heart disease and stroke among the patients. Then they compared HDL cholesterol data to determine whether those who improved their cholesterol between the two measurements saw any difference in hospitalization rates.

The researchers discovered that, for every 5mg/dL rise in HDL cholesterol, the patients reduced their risk of hospitalization due to heart disease or stroke by 4 percent. Additionally, an increase in HDL of 6.5mg/dL or more was associated with an 11 percent decrease in risk of hospitalization. According to the researchers, this demonstrated “that the prevention of a HDL cholesterol decrease might be at least as important as increasing the HDL cholesterol level.”

About half of all people who have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes also have low HDL levels, which are defined as below 40mg/dL for men and below 50mg/dL for women. According to the National Cholesterol Education Program, which is associated with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, an HDL cholesterol level of under 40mg/dL is considered to be a risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

However, the researchers at Kaiser Permanante noted that studies have still not shown that increasing HDL cholesterol levels causes a direct decrease in risk of heart attack and stroke, “perhaps because safe and effective agents that substantially increase the HDL cholesterol level remain elusive.”

According to Suma Vupputuri, investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Health Research Center in Atlanta, one possible limitation of the study is that researchers did not have access to information about what the patients did to increase their HDL cholesterol levels. It is known that lifestyle changes such as regular exercise, weight loss, and avoiding tobacco can have a positive effect on HDL. However, those changes are also known to reduce the chances of cardiovascular disease; as such, it’s unclear whether the increase in HDL or the improved lifestyles are the main catalyst behind lower risk of hospitalization.

Whether it’s improved HDL cholesterol or lifestyle changes that lead to the lower risk of hospitalization, patients are benefited either way. “I think the general message, certainly, from our paper, is yes, raising HDL is going to improve your cardiovascular outcomes,” said Vupputuri.

Steven Grover, M.D., M.P.A., director of the Cardiovascular Improvement Program at McGill University, agrees that improving HDL reduces the risk of hospitalization. “There’s enough supportive evidence from clinical trials that there’s good reason to believe raising HDL will work” to reduce that risk. Grover conducted a study in 2009 that demonstrated similar benefits in raising HDL cholesterol; however, his findings showed even greater benefits.

Insulin Resistance” src=”https://www.diabeticlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Barley-Fiber-Product-Improves-Post-Meal-Insulin-and-Insulin-Resistance-300×300.jpg” alt=”Barley Fiber Product Improves Post-Meal Insulin and Insulin Resistance” width=”300″ height=”300″ />A new study funded by Cargill has demonstrated that beverages fortified with a type of fiber produced from barley could reduce the impact of spikes in blood sugar occurring after a meal and may also increase insulin sensitivity. The findings of the study were published in the journal “Nutrition & Metabolism.”

Branded as Barliv, the fiber was shown in tests to reduce blood glucose levels by 10.2 percent with a three-gram dose. That’s an improvement over the 7.5 percent decrease in blood sugar that study participants displayed when they received a placebo beverage.

Barliv also showed promise as a long-term treatment for decreasing insulin resistance. Participants who consumed a beverage containing six grams of Barliv every day for 12 weeks showed a 19 percent decrease in insulin resistance while a placebo group showed a 42 percent increase. Insulin resistance is the inability of the body to respond to normal levels of insulin and is a common precursor to Type 2 diabetes.

“Because this trial was designed to ensure study subjects underwent protocol-directed maintenance of body weight, it is noteworthy that the metabolic findings occurred without significant weight changes in any of the study groups,” said the researchers. The study was a joint effort conducted by scientists from Louisville Metabolic & Atherosclerosis Research Center, Cargill, the University of Kentucky, ClinData Services, and Frestedt Incorporated.

The study consisted of 50 individuals classified as “generally healthy” according to the researchers. The trial was prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blind. Participants were separated into three groups; one group received a placebo beverage to consume daily while the other two received the beverage containing either 3 or 6 grams of Barliv. Both the placebo and Barliv beverages were raspberry-flavored.

Participants receiving the 3 gram dose of Barliv showed a 10 percent reduction in glucose levels; those receiving the 6 gram dose displayed a similar reduction, but the difference was not statistically significant. The group receiving 6 grams of Barliv had an 8 percent decrease in fasting insulin — or insulin levels between meals — while the placebo group actually showed an increase in fasting insulin.

The barley beta-glucan beverage was also associated with a reduction in body fat percentage — a 3.9 percent reduction in fat concentrations in the hips, buttocks, and thighs. However, no weight loss was recorded.

“This study supports that the 6 g/d barley beta-glucan beverage consumed over 12 weeks improves insulin sensitivity among hyperglycemic individuals who have no prior diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and no change in body weight,” said the researchers. “This study suggests barley beta-glucan may slow the deterioration of insulin sensitivity for individuals at increased risk for diabetes mellitus.”

The findings of the study could prove to be a ray of light in the fight against Type 2 diabetes, especially for those who already have pre-diabetes and are at an increased risk. The World Health Organization states that over 220 million people around the world are affected every year by diabetes, while 3.4 million die every year due to diabetes or complications from the disease. Diabetes has been on the rise for decades and the WHO is predicting that the trend won’t stop, stating that deaths from diabetes will double from 2005 to 2030.

Diabetes is a tremendous strain on health care, costing the United States alone up to $174 billion per year. A sizable portion of that number goes directly to medication for diabetes — about $116 billion of it, according to the American Diabetes Association.

According to researchers at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, a rare and serious form of hypoglycemia can be traced back to a hereditary disposition.

The scientists say that the AKT2 gene — or more specifically, mutations in the gene — are responsible for causing this particular type of hypoglycemia, which is serious enough to be considered life-threatening and which deprives the body of the energy it needs to continue functioning normally.

According to the scientists from Cambridge, who published their report in the journal “Science,” there are already cancer drugs in use which are designed to treat a similar process.

Hypoglycemia, or a condition of low blood sugar, can be caused by imbalances between blood sugar levels and insulin, which carries sugar away from the bloodstream and into cells, lowering blood glucose levels. Hypoglycemia typically occurs in individuals who have Type 1 diabetes, when they miss meals, consume alcohol, or inject themselves with too much insulin.

The researchers at the University of Cambridge discovered that one in 100,000 babies is born with a mutation in the AKT2 gene that causes hypoglycemic conditions even when no insulin is present in the blood. In those cases, individuals should exhibit high levels of blood glucose.

Individuals with this mutation must use feeding tubes during periods of sleep to ensure that blood sugar levels do not drop too low. The patient must always be vigilant about maintaining blood sugar levels and ensuring that they don’t dip into dangerous territory, and the condition can be taxing for both the patient and his or her family.

“Fear of low blood sugar has dominated the lives of these patients and their families,” said Dr. Robert Semple, one of the researchers from Cambridge.

In discovering the mutation, the scientists looked at genetic code of three children who had this severe form of hypoglycemia. All of the children exhibited a certain mutation in the ATK2 gene. The mutation causes the ATK2 gene, which functions as an interpreter for insulin, to act as if insulin is always being produced by the pancreas. Blood sugar levels are therefore consistently lowered.

According to Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, lead researcher on the project at Cambridge, there are medications available which target ATK1 and also provide some effect in acting on ATK2. These medications are currently used to treat cancer. Since medications already exist which act on the genes, it may not be long before new treatments are introduced for treating the rare form of hypoglycemia.

“There are actual pills that can be swallowed by humans. There could be a treatment in a year,” said Professor O’Rahilly.

An individual is considered hypoglycemic when his or her blood sugar levels fall below 70mg/dL. If blood sugar levels remain at such a low level for an extended period of time, it can be harmful to the individual. The hormone insulin is normally produced by the beta cells of the pancreas where it works to reduce blood sugar levels, but blood sugar levels can fall too low if too much insulin is produced, exercise is performed at a different time, or alcohol is consumed, among other factors. Hypoglycemia is treated by consuming about 15 grams of carbohydrates and checking blood sugar levels again after about 15 minutes. Hypoglycemia can cause loss of consciousness and even seizures or nervous system damage; as such, it should be treated as quickly as possible, but individuals with low blood sugar should refrain from driving themselves to reach a hospital.

Juvisync, a pill that combines medication for both diabetes and high cholesterol, recently won approval for sale in the U.S. The medication will provide a reduction in both expenses and pill count for users of Januvia and Zocor, both medications developed by Merck & Co., Inc.

Juvisync will be available within a few weeks and will combine Zocor, a statin drug that combats high cholesterol, with Januvia, a Type 2 diabetes medication. Juvisync will be priced about the same as Januvia alone — about $215 for a month’s supply. Generic forms of Zocor cost patients about $30 per month.

The combination pill will likely be attractive to many diabetics who are not currently taking statins, as they will be able to gain the benefits of those medications with little or no extra cost. The American Diabetes Association recommends that diabetics over the age of 40 or who have also been diagnosed with heart disease should take a statin every day.

“This provides a way to simplify their regimen and improve adherence,” says Dr. Susan Spratt of the Duke University Medical Center. According to Spratt, many diabetics already take several pills each day — sometimes six or more — due to the need for different medications for diabetes, high cholesterol, and blood pressure. Taking all of the necessary pills each day can be a chore, and even diabetics who have health insurance can find their medication to be very pricey.

Not only will the patients benefit from fewer pills to take, but the addition of a daily statin could prevent future costs of hospitalization, according to Spratt.

“Anything to reduce the cost is going to be helpful to patients,” says Spratt. “When you improve medication adherence, you actually lower health care costs because patients don’t end up in the ER or the hospital.”

Merck’s shares rose nearly 3 percent on the day of Juvisync’s announcement, up 19 cents to $31.61 at closing.

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder in which the body does not produce enough insulin or does not use it correctly. The insulin that is produced is unable to bear the load of transporting glucose out of the bloodstream, so blood sugar levels remain elevated and permanent damage to organs and other tissues can result.

A sizable percentage of patients with Type 2 diabetes also have high cholesterol levels: both conditions are related to being overweight or obese. Those with both Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol are at elevated risk of stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, and other illnesses, as well as complications commonly associated with diabetes such as nerve damage and vision loss.

Though the dangers of high cholesterol combined with Type 2 diabetes are well-documented, Merck says that up to four million patients with Type 2 diabetes are not receiving statins.

“Perhaps one third of the nation’s eligible patients with type 2 diabetes are not being treated with a statin, so here’s a convenient tool for doctors to target glucose as well as cholesterol levels,” said Dr. Seth Reddy, director of clinical affairs for diabetes at Merck.

Merck will offer Juvisync in six different dosages, which will correspond to the variance in severity of diabetes and cholesterol in patients. Side effects include headache, muscle and stomach pain, stuffy nose, and sore throat. The drug will also revitalize Zocor, which saw its market share reduced when it became available in generic forms as simvastatin in 2006.

A study conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has identified a gene that could increase susceptibility to diabetes in those who carry it. Researchers discovered the gene in obese mice; it controls a protein called tomosyn-2, which decreases insulin production by the pancreas. The findings were published in the journal “PLoS Genetics,” which published by the Public Library of Science.

Beta cells in the pancreas are responsible for making and releasing insulin into the bloodstream, where it removes glucose from the blood and carries it into cells so that it can be used as energy. Type 1 diabetes is characterized by a lack of insulin while Type 2 diabetes causes an individual to be insulin-resistant. Both diseases cause a wide variety of complications, becoming more severe if they go untreated.

Alan Attie of the University of Wisconsin-Madison headed the study. He commented that the discovery of the gene could be an important development but it’s uncertain whether the gene can be targeted by therapeutics to effectively combat diabetes in insulin.

“It’s too early for us to know how relevant this gene will be to human diabetes, but the concept of negative regulation is one of the most interesting things to come out of this study and that very likely applies to humans,” said Attie.

Researchers used obese mice in the study, which require more insulin to lower blood glucose levels than mice of a normal weight — and the same is true of humans.

“If you can produce that extra insulin – and most people do – you’ll be okay,” said Attie. “You will avoid diabetes at the expense of having to produce and maintain a higher insulin level.”

According to Attie, however, being overweight means that the body is less able to produce the extra insulin required to eliminate elevated glucose levels.

“Most of the type 2 diabetes that occurs in humans today would not exist were it not for the obesity epidemic,” he said.

Researchers on the study compared diabetes-susceptible and diabetes-resistant mice. They found that a single amino acid accounted for the destabilization of tomosyn-2 in the diabetes-resistant mice. That one mutation allowed the diabetes-resistant mice to produce additional insulin to meet the increased demands of obesity.

While the onset of diabetes is a complex process and it is unlikely that a single gene could be targeted to elminate the disease altogether, genetic research into diabetes can eventually illuminate the processes and allow researchers to develop therapies that cut off diabetes at the source. Many scientists agree that genetic factors play about a 50 percent role in an individual’s risk of developing diabetes.

“This study shows the power of genetics to discover new mechanisms for a complex disease like type 2 diabetes,” said Sushant Bhatnagar, co-lead author of the study.

“Now we know there are proteins that are negative regulators of insulin secretion,” said Attie. “Very likely they do the same thing in human beta cells, and it motivates us to move forward to try to figure out the mechanisms behind that negative regulation.”

The researchers disclosed that they had no competing interests that could have affected the results of the study. Attie and his research team bred mice and kept records of results for over a decade to arrive at their findings.

An ancillary study to the Look AHEAD trial found that intensive lifestyle interventions designed to promote weight loss in obese individuals with Type 2 diabetes also helped reduce obstructive sleep apnea in the same patients.

Over the course of the four year study, patients who underwent intensive interventions demonstrated an approximately four point reduction in apnea-hypopnea index. Meanwhile, the control group saw a four-point increase in the same metric, according to Gary Foster Ph.D., with Temple University in Philadelphia. Dr. Foster reported the findings of the study at a meeting of the Obesity Society.

Patients with the more severe obstructive sleep apnea at the beginning of the study also saw the greatest benefit and reported the largest gains. However, Dr. Foster commented that intensive interventions would not be a replacement for other sleep apnea therapy: the patients in the study had a mean apnea-hypopnea index of 20, which means that a four-point reduction would not be enough to eliminate symptoms without the help of other treatments.

“I don’t want to give you the impression that this is an alternative treatment to [continuous positive airway pressure treatment],” said Dr. Foster. “It’s probably a complementary treatment.”

The study, called Sleep AHEAD, was an ancillary of the Look AHEAD trial, which studies the benefits and effectiveness of intensive lifestyle interventions for obese individuals with Type 2 diabetes. The interventions are designed to promote weight loss in those individuals through education and diabetes support.

The Sleep AHEAD study aimed to determine whether the patients’ weight loss would also reduce the severity of sleep-related breathing disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea. It had been previously demonstrated in smaller studies that weight loss did have a positive effect on sleep apnea.

The study participants were given a questionnaire which aided researchers in identifying the severity of each individual’s sleep apnea. Patients who were already receiving treatment for sleep apnea or who had received surgery to treat the condition were not included in the pool of participants; researchers wanted to study patients who were not receiving current treatment for sleep apnea.

In all, 305 patients participated in the study, undergoing polysomnograms at their homes to measure symptoms of sleep apnea. Researchers rated participants on the severity of sleep apnea. Those with an apnea-hypopnea index of 5 or less were classified as free of sleep apnea; a score of 5 to 15 was diagnosed as mild; a score of 15 to 30 was moderate, and a score of 30 or more was severe.

Mean score among the participants was 20.5, with 13.4 percent of patients classified as not having sleep apnea. Participants with mild sleep apnea made up 33.5 percent of the study group while moderate patients made up 30.5 percent and severe patients made up 22.6 percent.

A year into the intensive intervention, patients had lost an average of 24 pounds while patients in a control group did not demonstrate any weight loss. Additionally, patients undergoing lifestyle interventions saw a reduction in apnea-hypopnea index of about six points while control patients had an increase of four points.

Four years into the study, intervention patients were more likely to have seen an improvement in their sleep apnea severity classifications (40 percent versus 15 percent) and were also more likely to experience a remission of symptoms (20 percent versus 3 percent).

Though weight loss seemed to be associated with reduction in sleep apnea, Dr. Foster commented that a healthier lifestyle in general could be more responsible for the positive changes.

“The likely hero, I think, is fitness,” said Dr. Foster, citing that previous research has shown that increased fitness levels even in the absence of weight loss can lead to improved sleep apnea.

New research has demonstrated that a type of sugar extracted from buckwheat, called D-fagomine, could help diabetics keep their blood glucose levels well-managed and may offer prebiotic activity in small doses.

A group of Spanish researchers reported in the journal “British Journal of Nutrition” that ingestion of the sugar along with sucrose or starch resulted in a less-severe blood sugar spike and did not stimulate the secretion of insulin. Data from animal studies also showed that ingestion of the D-fagomine sugar was associated with a reduction in levels of potentially harmful bacteria in the gut and a promotion of beneficial bacteria called Lactobacili.

“Based on all this evidence, d-fagomine may be used as a dietary ingredient or functional food component to reduce the health risks associated with an excessive intake of fast-digestible carbohydrates, or an excess of potentially pathogenic bacteria,” wrote the study’s authors.

The D-fagomine sugar is currently under development by Bioglane, a Barcelona-based biopharmaceutical company associated with the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). Bioglane funded the study into the properties of d-fagomine. Bioglance has previously reported that is has developed enzymatic processes that can be used to produce natural iminosugars on a large scale suitable for commercial use. It has focused on developing D-fagomine up to this point and has scaled up its production of the sugar under the name FDA-GMP. Bioglane was formed in 2007 and is also associated with the Genoma Espana Foundation and Caja Navarra. The company is devoted to finding new iminosugars that would allow humans to eat carbohydrate-rich diets without the negative effects sometimes associated with them.

D-fagomine is an iminosugar that occurs naturally in buckwheat grain and traditional buckwheat-based foods, according to Bioglane. The compound was first isolated in 1974 and is usually considered to be a glucose analog.

In the new study, lab rats were fed a combination of D-fagomine along with either starch or sucrose. The results of the experiments showed that the rats taking D-fagomine demonstrated lower levels of blood glucose, depending on the size of the dose. When they were given a dose of 1 to 2 milligrams per kilogram of body weight along with one gram of sucrose, they showed a 20 percent reduction in blood glucose levels after the meal. The maximum blood glucose level took longer to occur as well. According to the researchers, insulin levels also decreased along with the decrease in blood glucose.

The researchers also noted in their report that D-fagomine had significant prebiotic effects, preventing certain harmful bacteria from adhering to mucus membranes in the gut of test animals while having a positive effect on good bacteria.

“We also disclose here an activity of D-fagomine that had never been suggested before: the modulation of bacterial adhesion. We observed that D-fagomine selectively agglutinated potentially deleterious Enterobacteriaceae and prevented their adhesion to pig intestinal mucosa,” they reported. “The adhesion of Lactobacillus spp. was promoted by D-fagomine while that of Bifidobacterium spp. was not affected.”

However, they reported that additional research would be necessary to determine if D-fagomine could provide prebiotic health benefits from long-term use: “As the intestinal microbiota clearly influences the physiological status of the gut and even the health of the whole organism, further studies will determine whether this activity of D-fagomine results in long-term effects related to the reduction of health risk factors,” they said.

The research team was affiliated with Bioglane, Institut de Quimica Avancada de Catalunya, CSIC, Barcelona Science Park, the Universitat de Barcelona, and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.

A team of scientists reported on October 5 that they had successfully utilized cloning technology to create embryonic stem cells that contained genetic information from specific individuals. The success of the project could mark an important step in the development of stem cell cloning techniques, which could be used to treat diseases since they are not rejected by the patient’s body.

The cells produced in the experiment were genetically abnormal and would not be suitable for use in humans, say the researchers. But the discovery could still pave the way for future cloning techniques that could heal a variety of terminal illnesses.

The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial throughout several fields, including ethics, morality, and politics. Scientists paid women to donate eggs, which were used in the research. The study created concern about the exploitation of women for research and the health risk involved in donating eggs. The researchers used the eggs to produce and destroy embryos, from which the stem cells were extracted. The research caused controversy because scientists grew mutant human embryos specifically for use in the extraction of stem cells.

“They have created human embryos. They are abnormal, but they are still human embryos,” says Daniel P. Sulmasy, professor of medicine and ethics at the University of Chicago. “Anyone who is opposed to the deliberate creation and destruction of human embryos, as I am, would be opposed to this research.”

However, other scientists, bioethicists, and advocates of embryonic stem cell research praised the scientists for their meticulous attention to detail and for the advances in the fields of medicine that the research could bring.

“I think it will teach us a lot of how to control the generation of all the different cell types that we would like to study and use for therapy,” says Lawrence Goldstein, director of the stem cell research program at the University of California at San Diego. “I think it’s a really exciting development,” Goldstein continued.

Those who support embryonic stem cell research feel that it is one of the most promising fields of biomedical research. Embryonic stem cells are thought to have the ability to become any type of cell, tissue, or organ in the body. Such cells could be used to regrow defective organs such as kidneys, hearts, and livers, and new research could result in a cure for several serious diseases such as diabetes, paralysis, and Alzheimer’s disease. However, stem cell research is not without its opponents: scientists must grow and eventually destroy embryos to extract the stem cells, and some opponents believe that destroying an embryo is equivalent to ending a life.

Stem cells were first isolated in 1998 and researchers have been working ever since to create new stem cells that could be used to generate new tissue such as organs or even limbs. Since stem cells would contain the DNA of the individual who is receiving the treatment, the patient’s body would not reject the new tissue.

“Therapeutic cloning,” as it is sometimes called, is the process that was used to clone the sheep Dolly in 1996. The process implants genes from an adult individual into an egg that has been stripped of its own genetic material. Scientists then use other genetic processes to stimulate the egg to grow into an embryo with the new genetic information, which allows scientists to extract the embryonic stem cells.