A new research by scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is set to change the way we look at the causes of diabetes. They found that diabetes may actually begin in the intestines. Hitherto, scientists researching causes of diabetes always looked at the pancreas and the liver because the pancreas is where insulin is produced and liver is where the sugar is stored.
According to the principal investigator Clay F. Semenkovich, MD, when a person becomes insulin resistant, the Fatty Acid Synthase [FAS] in the intestines malfunctions too. FAS is an enzyme that plays a crucial role in producing lipids. It is regulated by insulin. If the intestines don’t have this enzyme, it leads to inflammation in the gut, which is considered a predictor of diabetes. The study was carried on mice and the team now plans to study human subjects to find out if FAS in diabetics functions the same way too.
The details are discussed in detail in a report by Jim Dryden on the university’s website. Read http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/23409.aspx