Saturday Morning Research Review – March 28, 2015

Psychoactive chemical may promote beta cell regeneration by Adam Burrack, PhD The fundamental problem in type 1 diabetes is a complete deficiency in insulin, resulting from lack of beta cells. I’ve previously described research showing that people with T1D for decades have small numbers of beta cells, as measured by C-peptide levels in their blood. […]

Saturday Morning Research Review – March 21, 2015

Thomas Kay, Helen Thomas, St Vincent’s Institute in Melbourne, Australia By Adam Burrack Previous posts in our “immunology of diabetes” series have described the roles of CD4-expressing T cells as ‘kick-starters’ of the adaptive immune response and CD8-expressing T cells as the ‘effector’ cells of the immune response. We have also turned these roles around […]

Saturday Morning Research Review – March 14, 2015

We have a 4-parter today, as last month’s issue of Diabetes Spectrum was packed full of good information for the diabetic athlete. We’ll give an overview of each article of note, but I also want to put out a call. If there is an article on diabetes, exercise, or similar relevant topics that you can’t get […]

Saturday Morning Research Review – March 7, 2015

Diane Mathis and Christophe Benoist, the pancreatic lymph node, and TCR transgenic mice By Adam Burrack In our “immunology of type 1 diabetes” series I’ve previously described critical roles for CD4-expressing T cells of the immune system in the process leading to the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D). CD4+ T cells are critical to […]

Ride/Run 100 miles? Yes you can!

We all know that people with type 1 diabetes are capable of a great many things. Standing on Everest, running across the country (I know the US and Canada, at least), racing bikes at the highest level, competing in the olympics (in both xc skiing and swimming) and doing various ultra-marathons… These things have all […]

Saturday Morning Research Review – February 28, 2015

Late last week, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee released their report which is used to form the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These guidelines have a long and controversial history beginning in the late 1970s, with a Senate committee headed by George McGovern seeking to improve the health of Americans. I say controversial because the 35  […]

Saturday Morning Research Review – February 21, 2015

Kathryn Haskins: T cell lines to study autoimmunity, Transgenic Mice to study diabetes onset, and Translation to Human Patients by Adam Burrack, PhD Relevant literature: Diabetes 37(10): 1444-1448, PNAS 86(20): 8000-8004, Nature Immunology 11(3):225-231, Diabetes 60(9): 2325-2330, and Journal of Autoimmunity 50:38-41 In previous posts in our ‘immunology of type 1 diabetes’ series I have […]

Saturday Morning Research Review – February 14, 2015

Mark Atkinson: University of Florida Diabetes Center, bone marrow transplantation as a treatment for T1D, and the gut microbiome as a precipitating factor in development of T1D by Adam Burrack, PhD Relevant research: PNAS 104: 2337-42, 2007 Diabetes 63: 2006-14, 2014 In our previous blogs I have described cells of the immune system, T cells, […]

Saturday Morning Research Review – February 7, 2015

Exercise and metabolism can increase the production of free radicals, or increase oxidative stress. Certain characteristics of diabetes also lead to increased oxidative stress. This situation led Francescato, et al. to study whether free radical production is significantly increased in those exercising with type 1 diabetes. This study produced a few interesting findings. Let’s dive in… […]

The Race Across America 2010

A few days ago I was asked to write about a success that I had in my recent life for a job application. I wrote about my experience with the Race Across America that I did in 2010 as part of Team Type 1. I was limited to 300 words, and certainly could have written […]