Russia (bbabo.net) - Breakthrough news regarding the study of diabetes mellitus comes from the United States. Scientists at the Salk Institute have discovered a new hormone that regulates blood sugar levels and has nothing to do with insulin.

According to the press service of the institute, the new hormone was named FGF1, its mechanism of action is the same as that of insulin, it is based on suppressing the breakdown of fats in the blood. But insulin and the recently discovered hormone use different enzymes for this process.

This discovery is of fundamental importance for patients with diabetes mellitus.

In this condition, insulin does not effectively cope with its task, the level of fatty acids in the blood rises, which contributes to the production of glucose in the liver, as a result, the concentration of sugar in the blood rises. In addition, fatty acids accumulate in the organs and insulin resistance is enhanced.

Scientists around the world have long been looking for an opportunity to get out of this vicious circle. Insulin resistance is detected when an elevated sugar level is found in the blood - more than seven units. There are many ways to reduce hyperglycemia and insulin resistance, ranging from dieting to increasing physical activity, but these methods cannot radically change the situation.

The effectiveness of the new hormone has been confirmed in experiments on mice. Rodents suffering from insulin resistance were injected with the hormone FGF1, and the processes of fatty acid breakdown in mice gradually returned to normal.

The authors of the study believe that the discovery of a new hormone will create fundamentally new methods of treating diabetes and will significantly improve the quality of life of patients diagnosed with this disease, but first, scientists intend to find out what is the role of the discovered hormone in human energy homeostasis.

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