Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have made an important discovery about how aging might lead to diabetes, especially in older adults. Their research focused on tiny groups of cells in the pancreas called islets of Langerhans.
These cells, though they make up only about 1% of the pancreas, play a big role in keeping blood sugar levels under control. When these cells are damaged or lost, it can affect how the body handles sugar, which may lead to diabetes.
The pancreas is an organ that helps us digest food and also produces insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar. Inside the pancreas are different types of cells that each have a job. The most important for diabetes are beta cells, which produce insulin. In people with diabetes, these beta cells don’t work well or there aren’t enough of them.
Led by Professor Shuang-Qin Yi, the research team studied pancreas samples from people who had died between the ages of 65 and 104. None of these people had known pancreatic diseases, making the study special because it looked at how the pancreas changes naturally with age, without other health problems getting in the way.
The scientists used a microscope to examine thin slices of the pancreas that had been stained to show different types of cells. They looked closely at four main types of islet cells: alpha cells, beta cells, delta cells, and PP cells. They wanted to understand how these cells changed in number and condition as people got older.
The key discovery was that beta cells—the ones responsible for making insulin—tended to decrease with age. This loss was more serious in very old people, suggesting a possible reason why older adults are more likely to develop diabetes even if they didn’t have it earlier in life. This type of diabetes is sometimes called senile diabetes or age-related diabetes.
The study also found a link between islet cell loss and something called PanIN, which are tiny lesions that can appear in the pancreas. These are often too small to cause problems on their own but may be signs of changes happening in the organ as people age. Interestingly, people over 90 had fewer severe cases of islet cell loss, though the reason for this is not yet clear.
One surprising finding was that women over the age of 70 were more likely than men to experience severe loss of pancreatic islet cells. This supports earlier data from 2021 by the International Diabetes Federation, which showed that diabetes is more common in women over 70 than in men the same age.
The researchers believe that the loss of insulin-producing beta cells might be a major reason why older people develop diabetes. If this is true, it means that future treatments could focus on protecting these cells as people get older. This might help delay or even prevent diabetes in the elderly.
This study adds to our understanding of how aging affects important organs like the pancreas. It also shows that age-related diseases like diabetes might be closely tied to small but critical changes happening inside our bodies.
For those interested in health, other recent studies have shown that not all whole grain foods are equally helpful for people with type 2 diabetes. Meanwhile, green tea may help lower the risk of death in people with diabetes.
Diets like the Mediterranean diet have also been linked to a lower risk of developing diabetes. These findings all support the idea that both lifestyle and biology play a role in managing health as we age.
You can read the full research in the journal Digestive and Liver Disease.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies that MIND diet may reduce risk of vision loss disease, and Vitamin D could benefit people with diabetic neuropathic pain.
For more information about diabetes, please see recent studies that Vitamin E could help reduce blood sugar and insulin resistance in diabetes, and results showing eating eggs in a healthy diet may reduce risks of diabetes, high blood pressure.
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