Diabetes News December 23rd 2011

Abbott Diabetes Care – grant renewal
A big thank you to Abbott Diabetes Care for renewing their educational grant for 2012

Feasibility of prolonged continuous glucose monitoring in toddlers with type 1 diabetes
More than 40% of very young children were able to safely use CGM on a near-daily basis after 6 months. CGM demonstrated frequent hyperglycemic excursions, with a large variability in glucose readings. Although improvement in glycemic control was not detected in the group as a whole, parental satisfaction with CGM was high (Pediatric Diabetes)

Spontaneous Normalization of Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase Antibody Levels Is Common in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus
Physicians treating children with type 1 diabetes and mildly elevated anti-TTG antibody levels might consider 12-month serologic follow-up on a gluten-containing diet rather than immediate duodenal biopsy (Digestive Diseases and Sciences)

Use of Recombinant Human Hyaluronidase to Accelerate Rapid Insulin Analog Absorption: Experience with Subcutaneous Injection and Continuous Infusion
rHuPH20 meaningfully accelerates insulin action profiles with an extent that is comparable to the difference between rapid analog profiles and those of regular insulin. Studies are currently underway to characterize the effect on diabetes management endpoints, including A1C, blood glucose, and hyperglycemia rates, of analog insulins coformulated with rHuPH20 for the management of both type-1 and type-2 diabetes (Endocrine Practice)

Intensive Diabetes Therapy and Glomerular Filtration Rate in Type 1 Diabetes
The long-term risk of an impaired GFR was significantly lower among persons treated early in the course of type 1 diabetes with intensive diabetes therapy than among those treated with conventional diabetes therapy (NEJM)

Pathogenic role of mast cells in the development of diabetic nephropathy: a study of patients at different stages of the disease
Through release of bioactive substances, such as tryptase, chymase, TGF-ß1, renin and TNF-a, into the tubular interstitium by degranulation, mast cells could promote renal inflammation and fibrosis, and thus contribute to diabetic nephropathy (Diabetologia)

Impact of Glycemic Control on Circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells and Arterial Stiffness in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
In patients with type 2 DM, the level of circulating EPCs and arterial stiffness were closely related to their glycemic control. Furthermore, DM patients with satisfactory glycemic control had higher levels of circulating EPCs and were associated with lower arterial stiffness (Cardiovascular Diabetology)

Association between vitamin D and diabetic neuropathy in a nationally representative sample: results from 2001–2004 NHANES
Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with self-reported peripheral neuropathy symptoms even after adjusting for demographic factors, obesity, co-morbidities, use of medications for neuropathy and diabetes duration and control (Diabetic Medicine)

Improvements in quality of life associated with insulin analogue therapies in people with type 2 diabetes
Compared with baseline scores, beginning insulin with, or switching to, insulin analogue therapies are associated with increased HRQoL (Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice)

A pilot study of the efficacy of miglitol and sitagliptin for type 2diabetes with a continuous glucose monitoring system and incretin-related markers
Completely different response patterns of insulin, glucagon, GLP-1, and GIP were observed among the study subjects with either medication alone or in combination, suggesting that individual hormone-dependent glycemic responses to the alpha-GI and DPP-4 inhibitors are complicated and multifactorial – complete article (Cardiovascular Diabetology)

Transmembrane Emp24 Protein Transport Domain 6 is Selectively Expressed in Pancreatic Islets and Implicated in Insulin Secretion and Diabetes
TMED6 may play a functional role in islet biology, particularly in hormone production or secretion, and its dysregulation may be implicated in the development of diabetes (Pancreas)

Teva Pursues First Type 1 Diabetes Treatment Since Insulin
The therapy, DiaPep277, is made from a human protein that stops the immune system from destroying the pancreatic beta cells that secrete insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy. The drug also helps control sugar levels in the blood, a late-stage study showed last month (Bloomberg)