Antioxidant In Diabetes
A new study shows that a synthetic antioxidant can delay and prevent the onset of autoimmune diabetes in mice. The antioxidant protected insulin-producing beta cells from lethal oxygen radicals generated in diabetes. To the researchers’ surprise, the antioxidant also blocked the ability of the immune system to recognize beta cells, the target of the autoimmune attackin diabetes. The findings, published by researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in the February issue of Diabetes, suggest that antioxidants may be useful against diabetes as well as other autoimmune diseases and organ-transplant rejections.
Antioxidant Prevents Autoimmune Diabetes in Mice
A new study shows that a synthetic antioxidant can delay and prevent the onset of autoimmune diabetes in mice. The antioxidant protected insulin-producing beta cells from lethal oxygen radicals generated in diabetes. To the researchers’ surprise, the antioxidant also blocked the ability of the immune system to recognize beta cells, the target of the autoimmune attack in diabetes.
Antioxidant Treatment in Diabetes
The many studies on oxidative stress, antioxidant treatment, and diabetic complications have shown that oxidative stress is increased and may accelerate the development of complications through the metabolism of excessive glucose and free fatty acids in diabetic and insulin-resistant states. However, the contribution of oxidative stress to diabetic complications may be tissue-specific, especially for microvascular disease that occurs only in diabetic patients but not in individuals with insulin resistance without diabetes, even though both groups suffer from oxidative stress.
Antioxidant protection
As a defense against oxidative damage, the body normally maintains a variety of mechanisms to prevent such damage while allowing the use of oxygen for normal functions. Such “antioxidant protection” derives from sources both inside the body (endogenous) and outside the body (exogenous). Endogenous antioxidants include molecules and enzymes that neutralize free radicals and other reactive oxygen species, as well as metal-binding proteins that sequester iron and copper atoms (which can promote certain oxidative reactions if free).
