Diabetes in cats – Are better anaytical methods the key to remission?
Project overview
Participants
More related research
Global goals
- 3. Good health and well-being
- 10. Reduced inequalities
- 12. Responsible consumption and production
Short summary
How can we better determine which treatment a cat with diabetes needs and how well the treatment is working? Can new analytical methods identify cats at increased risk of diabetes before the disease develops? The project also evaluates new methods for assessing long-term glycaemic control.
Analysis of insulin in cats
How can we better determine which treatment a cat with diabetes needs and how well it works? Can new analytical methods identify cats at increased risk of developing diabetes before the disease manifests? This project evaluates new analytical methods for the diagnosis and long-term monitoring of glycaemic control.
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common endocrine disease in cats and resembles type 2 diabetes in humans. Many cats already have low insulin concentrations at the time of diagnosis because high blood glucose concentrations damage the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
Nevertheless, some cats can recover their insulin production and no longer require treatment (achieve remission) if the disease is diagnosed and treated early. Currently, insulin production is rarely assessed in cats with DM because suitable analytical methods are not available in routine veterinary diagnostics.
A New Method for Measuring Insulin in Cats
In one of the project's studies, a new method for measuring insulin in feline blood samples is being developed and validated. The method is based on an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and will be compared with an advanced reference method based on mass spectrometry.
Clinical evaluation of the new insulin assay
New treatment options, in which medications are administered orally instead of insulin injections, require cats to retain some endogenous insulin production. With the new insulin assay, we hope to help veterinarians determine which type of treatment is most appropriate for each cat. We will also investigate whether insulin production during treatment can be used to predict diabetic remission.
Long-Term Glycaemic Markers in Cats
Fructosamine consists of glycated proteins and reflects blood glucose concentrations over the preceding 1–3 weeks. Several analytical methods are available for measuring fructosamine, and results vary between methods. As there is no established reference method, it remains unclear which method provides the most reliable results. Furthermore, several well-known interfering factors limit the clinical utility of fructosamine.
Despite these limitations, recommendations for adjusting insulin treatment are partly based on fructosamine concentrations, often without specifying which analytical method should be used. Different methods for assessing long-term glycaemic control will be investigated, and factors influencing their results will be identified.
Collaborators
Sarah Östergård Jensen - Anicura
Jonas Bergqvist - MD – PhD, Full Chair Professor in Analytical Chemistry and Neurochemistry at the Biomedical Centre, Department of Chemistry at Uppsala University