New publication in Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism
The global prevalence of diabetes mellitus is approximately 460 million individuals, and recent projections indicate that this will increase further in the next decades. Around 85% of these patients suffer from type 2 diabetes and most of the remaining 15% have autoimmune type 1 diabetes. A common feature in the pathophysiology of different types of diabetes is the reduction of insulin-producing β-cell mass in the pancreas and/or impairment of the function of individual β-cells. Diagnosis and treatment of early type 1 and type 2 diabetes is currently hampered by a lack of reliable techniques to restore β-cell function and survival and quantify β-cell mass in patients.
In the recent publication in Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism authored by Dr Esteban Gurzov, head of the STML, and colleagues, it was described the current new approaches which may allow us to precisely and specifically visualize β-cells in vivo and provide viable therapeutic strategies to preserve, recover and regenerate β-cells.
The Gurzov group in the ULB Faculty of Medicine is testing new molecules that can be used in pre-clinical studies for the early diagnosis of diabetes. The Laboratory is funded with research grants from the European Research Council (ERC), Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS).
Source: https://actus.ulb.be/fr/actus/recherche/diabete-focus-sur-les-cellules-beta