Scientists at the University of Florida’s Diabetes Institute have found an early biological marker that signals the start of Type 1 diabetes, according to research published in the journal Diabetes.
The study shows that the smallest clusters of insulin-producing beta cells, along with scattered single cells in the pancreas, are the first to die when the immune system begins attacking the body, well before any symptoms appear. As the disease progresses, the immune system targets larger clusters of beta cells called the islets of Langerhans.
Senior author Clive H. Wasserfall, Ph.D., explained, “If we can save these remaining larger islets of Langerhans, we might one day prevent or delay the disease.”
The research also found that smaller clusters disappear faster than larger ones. This may explain why children, who naturally have more small clusters, lose their insulin-producing ability more quickly than adults.
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To reach these findings, the team used advanced imaging and computer analysis on pancreatic tissue samples from the POD biorepository, the world’s largest collection of pancreatic tissue for Type 1 diabetes research.
This discovery could help doctors detect Type 1 diabetes earlier, provide faster interventions to slow its progression, and guide future strategies to preserve insulin-producing cells, even though a complete cure is not yet available.
In related research, an international team of neuroscientists recently created the most detailed map of brain activity during decision-making. Their studies, published in Nature, involved 12 labs across the U.S. and Europe and analyzed over 600,000 neurons in the mouse brain.
