Women who are obese, have type 2 diabetes or a family history of type 2 diabetes could one day have more successful pregnancies because of a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

How environmental stress contributes to cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes is under study at the Medical College of Georgia.

Steady increases in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages over the last several decades, as well as rates of Type 2 diabetes mellitus, led nutritional epidemiologists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and colleagues to explore the relationship between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes.

The largest-ever study of treatments for type 2 diabetes has shown that a combination of two blood pressure lowering drugs reduced the risk of death, as well as the risks of heart and kidney disease.

Australian researchers say reducing blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes can dramatically reduce the risk of death or serious complications.

A new study published on bmj.com today calls for better advice about home blood glucose monitoring for patients with non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes.

New findings from studies in mice suggest that defects in the brain’s ability to respond to glucose play a role in the development of non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes, and that a high-fat diet may contribute to impairing brain cells’ ability to regulate glucose throughout the body.

In cases of Type 2 diabetes, the body’s cells fail to appropriately regulate blood glucose levels. Research has suggested that this results from two simultaneous problems: the improper functioning of pancreatic beta cells and the impairment of insulin’s actions on target tissues, including the liver, fat and muscles.

Many individuals become type 2 diabetics because the cells of their body no longer respond to insulin. It is thought that one reason over eating causes insulin resistance is that fat is deposited in organs of the body, such as the liver, rather than in the fat tissue.

Upper trunk fat – deposits of fat on the chest and back –– is associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance, a condition that is a precursor of type 2 diabetes, according to a study led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC).

A new Joslin Diabetes Center-led study has identified a protein found in fat cells that may play a major role in how fat is produced and stored, offering a new target for treatments to prevent obesity and reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes. This latest research appears in the August 2007 issue of Cell Metabolism.

In the first large scale, multiethnic study of its kind, researchers at UCLA have confirmed the role played by three particular molecules known as cytokines as a cause of Type 2 diabetes, and further, have identified these molecules as early biological markers that may be used to more accurately predict future incidences of diabetes among apparently healthy individuals.