"Friendly" bacteria protect from diabetes
| Date: September 21, 2008 | 
|
Adapted from a news release issued by the journal Nature:
"Friendly" bacteria help to stop the development of type 1 diabetes in mice, according to research conducted in part at The Jackson Laboratory and published online in Nature. The findings could one day be used to develop bacteria-based treatments for patients, say the authors.
Type 1 diabetes is caused by destruction of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas by the body’s own immune system. Alexander Chervonsky and colleagues studied the incidence of diabetes in genetically modified non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice that lack the part of the immune system that responds to bacteria. They found that NOD mice raised in a completely germ-free environment, and therefore lacking "friendly" gut bacteria, developed severe diabetes. However, when they gave the mice back a cocktail of the usual bacteria found in the mammalian gut, the incidence of diabetes was significantly reduced.
The research indicates that the interaction between the immune system and our own "friendly" bacteria could be a critical factor in modifying susceptibility to diabetes.
# # #
Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, 207-288-6058
For information on automatic email delivery of news releases (journalists only), please send an email request for details to news@jax.org.
Media Relations, Communications Office
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609-1500
Phone: 207-288-6051
Fax: 207-288-6076
Email: news@jax.org
