Within one popular press article on the study into whether sensory
neural abnormalities can be the cause (rather than just the result)
of diabetes (the study where they were able to rapidly reverse Type I
diabetes in mice) there is this addition:
>The treatment is now being tested for Type 2 or obesity-related
>diabetes, in which insulin resistance is even more severe, with
>"strong evidence" so far it will work, the researchers said.
I have lost the source of that particular article; it is probably
either AFP, Reuters, or AP. The formal article is in the Dec 15
issue of the journal, Cell.
In the hospital's press release (URL below) notice:
>sensory nociceptor (pain-related) nerve endings in the pancreatic
>islet cells that produce insulin
As someone who has twice been through neural diseases that damaged
sensory nerves I know that in such situations it is not unusual for
some of the nerves afterwards to be less responsive but others to be
hyper-responsive. For example, I can (and have) caught a toenail and
pulled it out with only a bit of an ouch since my second bout of neural
disease, but some other areas nearby are so sensitive that a little
scrape with a ferret claw will cause very strong pain for 10 minutes or
more. It would be interesting to find if pancreatic nerves affecting
beta cell behavior can go either way with damage -- hyper-responsive
instead of just hypo-responsive, whether the nerve damage is congenital
or acquired.
If someone is interested and would like to look up more here are
things:
Press releases:
http://www.sickkids.ca/mediaroom/custom/diabetesopen06.asphttp://files.myweb.med.ucalgary.ca/files/68/files/unprotected/Nerves_in_diabetes-Cell_2006.pdf
Here is the URL of what is probably the most wonderful holiday image I
have ever seen:
http://www.olduvaigeorge.com/
Dec. 23rd and you can click for a larger version.
Have wonderful holidays!
Sukie (not a vet)
Current FHL address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth
People can join there or can send a blank mail to the automated
joining address:
[log in to unmask]
and then follow the directions.
(The second is recommended for those having problems with Yahoogroups
web settings, and afterward send a blank mail from your subscribed
address to
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to get the digest instead of individual mails. )
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/http://ferrethealth.org/archive/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.htmlhttp://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/http://www.ferretcongress.org/
[Posted in FML 5467]