Study: Type 1 diabetes may block insulin-tolerating hormone

SYDNEY, Australia Scientists in Australia may have found a way to prevent Type 1 diabetes.

Unlike Type 2 diabetes, which usually results from bad diet and lack of exercise, Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune cells attack the cells that produce insulin. But the Australian scientists, at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, said they may have found a way to make the immune cells tolerate the insulin-producing cells before the onset of the disease.

The scientists found that they could prevent mice from developing Type 1 diabetes by blocking the BAFF hormone, which controls the survival of immune B cells.

“This is a remarkable finding, as other B cell depletion methods tested elsewhere have just delayed or reduced disease incidence,” study investigator Eliana Marino said in a statement.

Marino and fellow researcher Shane Grey published the results of their study in the journal Diabetes. Support came from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.