Increased knowledge of insulin regulation in horses can be used to better understand how type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents can be prevented and treated. This is the background of a new study in a research collaboration led by Professor Johan Bröjer at SLU and Professor Peter Bergsten at Uppsala University. The study, funded through a donation from the Max Stenbeck Charitable Trust, could change the understanding of diabetes and have significant implications for its treatment.
By studying insulin regulation in horses with metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance) and its connection to children with type 2 diabetes, researchers see the potential for a groundbreaking breakthrough.
The medication canagliflozin, used in diabetes treatment for humans, has been found to significantly reduce insulin secretion in horses. This helps prevent the painful hoof disease laminitis, a common welfare disorder in horses. The purpose of the new project is to investigate how the substance canagliflozin reduce insulin secretion in horses. Increased knowledge of insulin regulation in horses can be used to better understand how type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents can be prevented and treated.
Thanks to the donation from the Max Stenbeck Charitable Trust, the opportunity to unravel the mechanisms behind this exciting discovery is now open.
"We are incredibly happy and grateful that the Max Stenbeck Charitable Trust is supporting this research. The foundation, whose goal is to improve the situation for vulnerable children, demonstrates with their donation an understanding that human medicine and veterinary medicine greatly benefit each other, to the advantage of both animals and humans," says Professor Johan Bröjer.
The study is conducted within a doctoral project supported by the Uppsala Diabetes Center – a competence forum led and operated by Uppsala University in collaboration with SLU.
