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Dolphin blood sugar switch in fasting may help adult sufferers of diabetes
A trick dolphins use to keep their big brains fed with energy could potentially lead to a cure for adult diabetes, say scientists.
Experts have discovered that bottlenose dolphins can turn a diabetic-like state on and off as needed to maintain their blood sugar levels.
They believe a now-dormant genetic mechanism of the same type may have once evolved in people – and for similar reasons.
In both dolphins and ancient humans it would ensure that during lean times enough energy-giving sugar was always on hand to meet the demands of a large power-hungry brain.
Understanding how the switch works and learning how to control it could be the solution to Type-2 diabetes, a disease that accounts for 5 per cent of all human deaths worldwide, US researchers claim.
Dr Stephanie Venn-Watson, director of clinical research at the National Marine Mammal Association in San Diego, California, said: "If dolphins have a genetic fasting switch that can turn diabetes on and off, identifying and controlling such a switch in humans could lead to a cure for Type-2 diabetes. Maybe there is something dormant in us that can be awakened and used to provide therapy or a cure."
"Our ancestors' primary diets were high in protein and low in carbohydrates," Dr Venn-Watson told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.
"It has been hypothesised that insulin resistance was selected for because it was beneficial during the ice age." But the trait may have turned into a potentially dangerous condition when energy-rich foods became plentiful.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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