Published in the journal Nature Communications , a new study led by the University of Lund (Sweden) claims to have identified a protein in the blood that could predict type 2 diabetes up to nineteen years before the onset of the disease.
Early detection of type 2 diabetes risk before symptoms could help minimize diabetes-related health complications, and its discovery is based on studies that followed 5,318 people over the course of 4 to 19 years in two locations. different in Sweden and Finland.
“We found that higher levels of the protein follistatin circulating in the blood predict type 2 diabetes up to nineteen years before the onset of the disease, regardless of other known risk factors such as age, body mass index (BMI ), fasting blood glucose levels, diet or physical activity , ”says Yang De Marinis, associate professor at Lund University and lead author of the study.
The experts found that follistatin , a protein secreted primarily by the liver and involved in the regulation of metabolism, promotes the breakdown of fat from adipose tissue, resulting in increased accumulation of lipids in the liver. This, in turn, increases the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.
The genome study of 5,124 people found follistatin levels are genetically regulated by the glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR), which has an important effect on several metabolic processes.
The next step will be to put the results into clinical use.
“This discovery offers an opportunity to institute measures to prevent type 2 diabetes from establishing in the body of patients. Our research will continue towards this goal, ” concludes Yang De Marinis.
Remember that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes can be greatly reduced by controlling weight, eating right, and exercising.
Referencia: Reference: “Elevated circulating follistatin associates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes” by Chuanyan Wu, Yan Borné, Rui Gao, Maykel López Rodriguez, William C. Roell, Jonathan M. Wilson, Ajit Regmi, Cheng Luan, Dina Mansour Aly, Andreas Peter, Jürgen Machann, Harald Staiger, Andreas Fritsche, Andreas L. Birkenfeld, Rongya Tao, Robert Wagner, Mickaël Canouil, Mun-Gwan Hong, Jochen M. Schwenk, Emma Ahlqvist, Minna U. Kaikkonen, Peter Nilsson, Angela C. Shore, Faisel Khan, Andrea Natali, Olle Melander, Marju Orho-Melander, Jan Nilsson, Hans-Ulrich Häring, Erik Renström, Claes B. Wollheim, Gunnar Engström, Jianping Weng, Ewan R. Pearson, Paul W. Franks, Morris F. White, Kevin L. Duffin, Allan Arthur Vaag, Markku Laakso, Norbert Stefan, Leif Groop and Yang De Marinis, 10 November 2021, Nature Communications. DOI:
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26536-w
