Featured Papers | DZD - Deutsches Zentrum für Diabetesforschung

With the participation of researchers from the Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden (PLID), a GLP-1 receptor agonist in the form of tablets was compared for the first time with the most common second-line therapy of T2D, a DPP-IV inhibitor. The investigations were carried out in parallel in Japan, France, England, Mexico, Denmark, the USA and Germany as part of the international, randomised double-blind study PIONEER-3. The results are considered to point the way for future therapy of type 2 diabetes.

The regulation of blood glucose should be part of cardiovascular prevention and health promotion measures and be included in evidence-based practice guidelines. This is the result of an extensive systematic umbrella review conducted by DZD researchers at the Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden (PLID) and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).

How a protein promotes the healing of inflammation

The protein DEL-1, is a central actor that ensures that excessive inflammation subsides. Scientists were able to demonstrate the importance and basic function of this protein. Their work could provide new approaches for the treatment of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, metabolic diseases, inflammatory bone diseases or cancer.

Many overweight people lack the feeling of being full. It was long thought that this was due to the disrupted transport of the satiety hormone leptin to the brain. That is not the case, as a group of DZD scientists was able to show using a new 3D imaging method. The cause seems to lie in the nerve cells, as the researchers describe in an article in the "International Journal of obesity".

As part of a large-scale study, researchers constructed 24-hour metabolic profiles of mouse tissues and organs under conditions of energy balance and high-fat diet. Their findings provide an overview of how the various metabolic pathways in the body are interconnected and also reveal suitable time frames for anti-obesity therapies. The study was conducted under the aegis of the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University of California Irvine in collaboration with the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD). The results have now been published in 'Cell'.

Although polyneuropathy is present in about 30% of people with diabetes, it often remains undiagnosed. Scientists from DZD, have now been able to show for the first time that six biomarkers of inflammation indicate the risk of polyneuropathy. The results were published in the current issue of the journal "Diabetes".

Breathlessness and conditions of restrictive lung disease (RLD), such as pulmonary fibrosis, may be a late complication of type 2 diabetes. These are the key findings of a joint study undertaken by researchers from the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and the German Center for Lung Research (DZL) under the leadership of the University Hospital Heidelberg.

In cases of severe obesity, visceral fat cells release a protein that promotes insulin resistance and chronic inflammation. This was discovered by an international team led by scientists from the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD).

Only one subgroup of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has elevated glucagon levels. This is the finding of a study conducted by DZD researchers in Munich. The scientists studied glucagon levels in young women with different levels of risk for T2D during an oral glucose tolerance test*. They discovered four patterns of glucagon dynamics that did not match the metabolic phenotypes. The results have now been published in the “Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism”.

Insulin was discovered almost 100 years ago. Now, a German-American research team with DZD involvement was able to show how the hormone activates its receptor. The results and images have been published in the' Journal of Cell Biology'.

Systems biology of the IMIDIA biobank from organ donors and pancreatectomised patients defines a novel transcriptomic signature of islets from individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Diabetologia, 2017

Among young patients with type 1 diabetes, insulin pump therapy, compared with insulin injection therapy, was associated with lower risks of severe hypoglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis and with better glycemic control during the most recent year of therapy. These are the results of a population-based cohort study published in the „Journal of the American Medical Association“.

JAMA, 2017

Elevated hepatic DPP4 activity promotes insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Molecular Metabolism, 2017

The protective effect of human renal sinus fat on glomerular cells is reversed by the hepatokine fetuin-A. Scientific Reports 7, 2017

Hypothalamic and striatal insulin action suppresses endogenous glucose production and may stimulate glucose uptake during hyperinsulinemia in lean but not in overweight men. Diabetes, 2017