New research from Denmark adds further weight to the idea that type 2 diabetes is an inflammatory disease.

The recently published study describes how in mice, during the very early stages of type 2 diabetes, immune cells called macrophages invade pancreatic tissue, releasing large quantities of cytokines – pro-inflammatory proteins – that help destroy insulin-producing beta cells.

More than 360 million people around the world have type 2 diabetes, including around 8% of Americans. The disease can lead to more serious conditions like cardiovascular disease, blindness, loss of limbs, and kidney failure.

In people who are healthy and do not have diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas secrete insulin into the bloodstream – this helps to regulate blood sugar levels which rise after eating.

One of the researchers, Dr. Alexander Rosendahl, from the Department of Diabetes Complication Biology at Novo Nordisk A/S, in Malov, says:

“The study may provide novel insights allowing development of tailor-made anti-inflammatory based therapies reducing the burden of type 2 patients.”

Such new treatments could be used to complement existing therapies, for example those that use insulin analogues, he adds.

For their study, Dr. Rosendahl and colleagues compared obese mice that spontaneously developed diabetes to normal healthy mice.

They observed the mice from a young age, when in early stages of obesity, until after their obesity in adulthood had started to affect multiple organs.

They monitored presence of macrophages around the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, and also in the spleen. The advanced cytometric technology they used allowed them to take measurements at the level of single cells.