Can vitamin A deficiency lead to the development of Type 2 diabetes? New research by Weill Cornell Medical College researchers suggests the answer may be yes.
The study, published in the
Journal of Biological Chemistry, indicates vitamin A helps give rise to beta cells in the pancreas that produce the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin,
Medical Xpress reports.
In lab studies involving mice, the scientists found a lack of vitamin A spurred the death of beta cells. In fact, when the investigators removed vitamin A from the rodents' diets, they found that the mice began to experience massive losses of beta cells — resulting in drops in insulin and a big increase in blood sugar.
When they reintroduced vitamin A into the animals' diet, the number of beta cells stabilized, insulin production was higher, and blood sugar returned to normal levels.
"From a therapeutic point of view, our research is a very important contribution because there are no drugs available to do this," said researcher Steven Trasino, M.D.
Lorraine Gudas, M.D., chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and the Revlon Pharmaceutical Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Weill Cornell, added that while thousands of studies have examined the roots of diabetes, there hasn't been much research on vitamin A’s involvement.
"How the removal of vitamin A causes the death of the beta cells that make insulin in the pancreas is an important question we want to answer,” Dr. Gudas said. “These beta cells in the pancreas are exquisitely sensitive to the dietary removal of vitamin A. No one has found that before."
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