Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed a new mouse model that answers the question of what actually happens in the body when type 2 diabetes develops and how the body responds to drug treatment. Long-term studies of the middle-aged mouse model will be better than previous studies at confirming how drugs for type 2 diabetes function in humans. The work was published online in May 2013 in Diabetologia. "The animal models for type 2 diabetes studies that have previously existed have not been optimal because they use young mice. Our idea was to create a model that resembles the situation in the development of type 2 diabetes in humans. We generally get the disease in middle age when we start to put on weight and live a more sedentary, and more stressful, life. Our new middle-aged mouse model has enabled us to study long-term physiological effects of the development and treatment of type 2 diabetes in a completely new way", said Dr. Bilal Omar, one of the researchers behind the study. What the Lund researchers have done is to feed normal mice fatty food over a long period from the age of eight months, i.e. middle age, until the end of their natural lives at the age of two years. The mice become overweight, and develop high blood sugar levels and reduced insulin release, as expected before the onset of type 2 diabetes. "Throughout the period we were able to study the process that leads to the development of type 2 diabetes with a lifestyle like that of people predisposed to the condition," said Dr. Omar. In the study, the researchers could confirm that fatty foods lead to inflammation in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, which produce insulin. Researchers have seen inflammation in the islets in people with type 2 diabetes, but in Dr.Login Or Register To Read Full Story