A team of researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University has made an important discovery about how losing specific cells in the pancreas might lead to diabetes as people get older.
The pancreas is a crucial organ that helps digest food and controls blood sugar by making insulin. Inside the pancreas, there are tiny groups of cells called islets of Langerhans, which make hormones. Even though these cells are only a small part of the pancreas, changes in them can greatly affect health.
Professor Shuang-Qin Yi and his team studied the loss of these pancreatic islet cells in people who did not have any known pancreatic diseases. They looked at the pancreases of people who had passed away, ranging in age from 65 to 104.
This study, published in the journal Digestive and Liver Disease, is unique because it focuses on healthy individuals, which is rarely done in similar research.
The researchers used special stains to highlight different cells in the pancreas and then examined them under a microscope. They focused on four types of cells: alpha, beta, delta, and PP cells. They discovered a significant decrease in beta cells in older people.
Beta cells are important because they produce insulin, which helps control blood sugar. This loss of beta cells was especially noticeable in very old individuals, suggesting it could be a key reason why diabetes develops with age.
The study also found a link between the loss of these cells and small lesions in the pancreas called pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanIN). Interestingly, people who lived to a very old age seemed to have less severe cell loss.
Another surprising finding was the difference between men and women. Women over the age of 70 were more likely to experience severe loss of these cells than men.
This matches data from the International Diabetes Foundation in 2021, which showed that women over 70 had higher rates of diabetes compared to men.
The research suggests that losing beta cells could be a major factor in developing diabetes in older adults. This new understanding could help create treatments that focus on protecting these cells in elderly people.
Understanding these changes in our bodies as we age is important because it can help prevent common diseases like diabetes. By looking closely at the loss of specific cells in vital organs like the pancreas, researchers are finding new ways to treat age-related health issues.
For those interested in diabetes, other studies have shown that not all whole grain foods are beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes. Also, drinking green tea might help reduce the risk of death in people with type 2 diabetes.
To learn more about health, recent studies have linked unhealthy plant-based diets to metabolic syndrome. Another study found that following a Mediterranean diet could reduce the risk of diabetes by one-third.
The findings from this research can be found in the journal Digestive and Liver Disease.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about Vitamin D and type 2 diabetes, and to people with diabetes, some fruits are better than others.
For more information about diabetes, please see recent studies that low calorie diets may help reverse diabetes, and 5 vitamins that may prevent complication in diabetes.
Copyright © 2024 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
