GAP Study

In this study, the levels of certain proteins or markers in the blood related to diabetes are being studied in those women with diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes) and those without diabetes during pregnancy. These markers and their relationships with blood sugar levels are then assessed at roughly 3 months and 1 year after their pregnancy.

So far, this study has shown that

1. One of the markers may be related to how well the body produces insulin (the substance made by the body to control blood sugar levels);
2.  The production of insulin is influenced by how well the insulin works in the body;
3. A woman’s ethnic background plays a role in how her weight affects the function of insulin during pregnancy;
4. The timing of a single high value on the oral glucose tolerance test in pregnancy may be related to how well your body’s insulin works when you are pregnant.

If you’d like to read more about these results, you can find more information in the articles listed below.

This study is giving us important information into factors that may cause diabetes, a disease of epidemic proportions in our society.

1. Retnakaran R , AJ Hanley, N Raif, CR Hirning, PW Connelly, M Sermer, SE Kahn, B Zinman. Adiponectin and b -cell dysfunction in gestational diabetes: pathophysiologic implications. Diabetologia 2005; (182 KB pdf )   48(5):993-1001. 
   
2. Retnakaran R, AJ Hanley, M Sermer, B Zinman. The impact of insulin resistance on proinsulin secretion in pregnancy: hyperproinsulinemia is not a feature of gestational diabetes. (138 KB pdf )  Diabetes Care 2005; 28:2710-2715. 
   
3. Retnakaran R, AJ Hanley, PW Connelly, M Sermer, B Zinman. Ethnicity modifies the impact of obesity on insulin resistance in pregnancy: a comparison of Asian, South Asian and Caucasian women. (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2005, in press)

Type 2 Diabetes Study

The Endocrinology and Metabolism Department at the University of Toronto needs volunteers for a research study looking to shed light on Type 2 Diabetes.

The trial will look at how a class of drugs called ACE-inhibitors might improve the body’s use of insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas. Type 2 diabetes starts when the body does not make enough insulin, or can’t properly use the insulin it does make.

The researchers are looking for overweight people between 18 and 65 who do not have diabetes and are not taking ACE-inhibitors. The study will take place over a period of eight (8) weeks, and during this time participants will meet regularly with research staff (total time commitment approximately 9 hours over the course of the study), and will have blood tests and a small fat biopsy. Participants will be reimbursed for their time.

For more information, please contact Dr. I.G. Fantus, Lebovic Building 5-028, at 416-586-8665.

1. Beard, K.M., Lu, H., Ho, K., Fantus I.G.  Bradykinin augments insulin-stimulated glucose transport in rat adipocytes via an endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-protein kinase G (PKG)-dependent signalling pathway.  Diabetes 55:2678-2687, 2006.