insulin

Insulin improves muscle growth in elderly

harminka — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:17:08 -0500

When most people think of insulin, they think of diabetes — a disease that arises when, for one reason or another, insulin can't do the critical job of helping the body process sugar. But the hormone has another, less well-known function. It's also necessary for muscle growth, increasing blood flow through muscle tissue, encouraging nutrients to disperse from blood vessels and itself serving as a biochemical signal to boost muscle protein synthesis and cell proliferation.

Physicians break myths about insulin

harminka — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:05:29 -0500

People diagnosed with type 2 diabetes often resist taking insulin because they fear gaining weight, developing low blood sugar and seeing their quality of life decline.

High Insulin Level Is Risk Factor for Breast Cancer

harminka — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:00:00 -0600

Women who have a high level of insulin have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who have a lower level of the hormone.

Leptin's long-distance call to pancreas

harminka — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:33:20 -0600

the cartoonist who devised complex machines for simple tasks—would have smiled at one of leptin's mechanisms for curbing insulin release. As Hinoi et al. show, the fat-derived hormone enlists the sympathetic nervous system to prevent bone-making cells from releasing a molecule that prods the pancreas to discharge insulin.

FDA Warning: Recall of Mislabeled ReliOn Insulin Syringes

Armen Hareyan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:07:20 -0600

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is notifying health care professionals and patients that Tyco Healthcare Group LP (Covidien) is recalling one lot of ReliOn sterile, single-use, disposable, hypodermic syringes with permanently affixed hypodermic needles due to possible mislabeling.

Completely novel action of insulin unveiled

harminka — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:45:24 -0600

A PhD student at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research has uncovered an important piece in the puzzle of how insulin works, a problem that has plagued researchers for more than 50 years. This finding brings us one step closer to explaining exactly how insulin prompts fat and muscle cells to absorb glucose.

Treatment corrects severe insulin imbalance in animal studies

harminka — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:01:41 -0500

Researchers have used a drug to achieve normal levels of blood sugar in animals genetically engineered to have abnormally high insulin levels. If this approach succeeds in humans, it could become an innovative medicine for children with congenital hyperinsulinism, a rare but potentially devastating genetic disease in which insulin levels become dangerously high.

Systems properties of insulin signaling revealed

harminka — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:26:55 -0500

A team of Swedish researchers has characterized novel systems properties of insulin signaling in human fat cells. Their mathematical modeling, described in an article published June 20th in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, provides further insight into energy level maintenance (via the hormone insulin) within our bodies.

Neuroscientists show insulin receptor signaling regulates structure of brain circuits

harminka — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:38:45 -0500

A team of neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has demonstrated for the first time in living animals that insulin receptors in the brain can initiate signaling that regulates both the structure and function of neural circuits.

Bypassing the insulin highway

harminka — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:50:06 -0500

An immune cell known as a neutrophil releases a protein that can suppress glucose production in the liver –without targeting insulin, researchers have found.

Gel-like material shows promise as oral insulin pill for diabetes

harminka — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:11:51 -0500

Researchers in Texas report development of a gel-like material that could help speed the long-awaited arrival of insulin that can be taken in a pill by mouth, rather than with injections. The study is scheduled for the April 14 issue of ACS’ Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal.

New nanotube sensor can continuously monitor minute amounts of insulin

harminka — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:06:03 -0500

A new method that uses nanotechnology to rapidly measure minute amounts of insulin is a major step toward developing the ability to assess the health of the body’s insulin-producing cells in real time.