When a patient is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the disease has usually already progressed over several years and damage to areas such as blood vessels and eyes has already taken place. To find a test that indicates who is at risk at an early stage would be valuable, as it would enable preventive treatment to be put in place. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden, together with colleagues, have now identified a promising candidate for a test of this kind. The findings were published in the November 7, 2012 issue of Cell Metabolism. "We have shown that individuals who have above-average levels of a protein called SFRP4 in the blood are five times more likely to develop diabetes in the next few years than those with below-average levels", says Dr. Anders Rosengren, a researcher at the Lund University Diabetes Centre (LUDC), who has led the work on the risk marker. It is the first time a link has been established between the protein SFRP4, which plays a role in inflammatory processes in the body, and the risk of type 2 diabetes. Studies at the LUDC, in which donated insulin-producing beta cells from diabetic individuals and non-diabetic individuals have been compared, show that cells from diabetics have significantly higher levels of the protein. It is also the first time the link between inflammation in beta cells and diabetes has been proven. "The theory has been that low-grade chronic inflammation weakens the beta cells so that they are no longer able to secrete sufficient insulin. There are no doubt multiple reasons for the weakness, but the SFRP4 protein is one of them", says Dr. Taman Mahdi, main author of the study and one of the researchers in Dr. Rosengren's group. The level of the protein SFRP4 in the blood of non-diabetics was measured three times at intervals of three years.Login Or Register To Read Full Story