Neglected Hormone may Offer Relief to Diabetics

      DETROIT - A hormone scientists once thought was ``garbage'' is now believed to reduce some of the worst complications from Type 1 diabetes, researchers said.

      The research focuses on C-peptide, a molecular cousin of insulin, which regulates the body''s sugar levels.

      Researchers still aren''t sure exactly what function C-peptide plays in the body. But scientists gathered for an international diabetes symposium in Michigan last weekend were excited about preliminary studies that show injections of C-peptide along with insulin reduced serious diabetic complications such as kidney damage.

      ``We thought it was garbage,'' said Dr. Anders Sima, a researcher at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

      Instead, he said, C-peptide and insulin may be like the oil and gas that cars need to run properly. Insulin helps the body to balance metabolism; C-peptide helps the body last a lifetime. Sima and others summarized the findings at the Third Annual International Motor City Diabete3 Symposium.

      A large international study is expected to begin next year, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday. If early research is reproduced, C-peptide could easily be administered because it already is manufactured as a byproduct of insulin. It would be added to the insulin injections Type 1 diabetics now take.

      Even with strict diets, daily insulin and close monitoring of blood-sugar levels, four of 10 diabetics develop serious problems, including kidney failure, heart and peripheral nerve problems and deteriorating vision and eventual blindness. In the United States, about 17,000 die each year of such complications.

      Sima said early research also shows that C-peptide delays the onset of complications. It also may be helpful in some cases of Type 2 diabetes which also are insulin deficient.

      Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune problem in which beta cells in the pancreas are killed. Beta cells make insulin and C-peptide, which are depleted in people with Type 1 diabetes.

      C-peptide was discovered in 1967, but scientists lost interest when they could not show that it helped with metabolism the way insulin does, said Dr. George Grunberger, professor and director of Wayne State''s Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics.

      A handful of researchers, however, continued the work. The payoff came in the past few years.

      Dr. John Wahren, of Sweden''s Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, found that daily injections of C-peptide limited kidney, bowel, sexual and circulatory complications in Type 1 diabetics. Sima demonstrated the same benefits in diabetic rats.

      Scientists now theorize that a lack of C-peptide may be the key to progression of the disease.

      ``We''ve found there very well may be use for what was called shavings from the carpenter''s bench,'' Wahren said.

      Soon, Wahren will begin studies of C-peptide therapy at three Swedish sites. He and Sima also have held preliminary talks with European and U.S. drug officials about the scope of larger studies, which they hope will be under way by spring.

      Further work to design the study will be done at a meeting in Sweden planned for December, Sima said.

     

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