2023-12-12 12:00:10
If sugar is the most common culprit in the development of type 2 diabetes, better understanding the role of fats is also essential. By analyzing the blood profiles of dozens of people suffering from diabetes or pre-diabetes, or who had to undergo partial removal of the pancreas, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) have made two major discoveries. Image of pancreatic islets with insulin-producing beta cells (green).
© UNIGE / Dibner
On the one hand, the lipid composition of blood and adipose tissues oscillates during the day and is altered depending on the time of day in diabetics, who have a higher level of toxic lipids. On the other hand, a type of lipid, lysoPI, is capable of strengthening insulin secretion in the event of failure of the beta cells, which normally produce it. These results, to be discovered in the journals Cell Reports Medicine and Diabetes, might have important implications in the management of charge people with diabetes.
The role of lipids in the physiological and pathological processes of human metabolism is gradually becoming clearer, and in particular in the Type 2 diabetes, one of the most common serious metabolic disorders. Thanks to cutting-edge tools, including mass spectrometryresearchers are now able to simultaneously measure the levels of several hundred different types of lipids, each with their specificities and their beneficial, or harmful, effects on our metabolism.
“Identifying which lipids are most present in type 2 diabetics might constitute a basis for multiple interventions: early detection, preventionpotential therapeutic targets, or even personalized recommendations, the possibilities are immense,” underline Charna Dibner, professor in the Department of surgeryand Pierre Maechler, professor in the Department of physiology cellular and metabolism of the Faculty of medicine of UNIGE, members of the Faculty Center of diabetes, who led these studies. “This is why we carried out a detailed analysis of the blood profiles of patients recruited in four European countries, and confirmed some of our results on mice, models of the disease.»
Chronobiology to better identify diabetes
The team of Professor Charna Dibner, a specialist in circadian rhythms in metabolic disorders, carried out a so-called “lipidomic” analysis of two groups of patients in order to establish the profile, over a cycle of 24 hours, multiple lipids present in the blood and in adipose tissues. “The differences between the lipid profile of type 2 diabetics and people without diabetes are particularly pronounced early in the morning, where there is an increase in certain toxic lipids,” explains the researcher. “For what ? We don’t know yet. But this might constitute a marker of severity of diabetes and allow personalized care of patients according to their own chronotype.
This has implications even beyond diabetes: if samples are taken at very different times of the day, the results can be skewed and give rise to conflicting results. “Same thing in the clinic, moreover: an examination carried out in the morning or evening, or a treatment taken at different times, can have an impact on screening and on the very effectiveness of the treatment.”
A crutch for beta cells
Charna Dibner and Pierre Maechler then expanded their lipidomic analyzes to include not only people with type 2 diabetes but also a mouse model of pre-diabetes as well as patients who had lost regarding half of their insulin-producing beta cells. following an operation. “We discovered that a type of LIPIDlysoPI, increases in the event of a sharp decrease in functional β cells, even before the appearance of clinical symptoms of diabetes.
The scientists then administered lysoPI to diabetic mice and observed an increase in insulin production. “The same phenomenon occurs in vitro, on pancreatic cells from diabetic patients,” adds Pierre Maechler. “LysoPIs would thus have the capacity to strengthen insulin secretion by acting as a crutch in the event of a reduction in name beta cells or dysfunction. However, certain foods, such as legumes, naturally contain lysoPI precursors.”
By highlighting the hitherto unsuspected role of lysoPIs, researchers will be able to explore new avenues opened up by their discoveries. The development of food supplements, or even molecules specific to lysoPIs receptors, might be a strategy of control of diabetes, as well as better consideration of the chronobiological profiles of patients. Diabetes is in fact a complex disease which requires much more personalized care than is currently the case.
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