Original article sourced from Science Daily. Â Read the full article here
A group of researchers from the University of Copenhagen has taken a significant step towards understanding the reasons for both diabetes and growth hormone deficiency. Their new discoveries centre on the body’s ability to regulate certain hormones, and their findings have just been published in the scientific journal PLOS Biology.
Some people suffering from diabetes or affected by poor growth most likely have problems with hormone deficiency. The so-called PICK1 protein, a protein that plays a decisive role in the formation of both growth hormone and insulin in the human body.
“We have studied the role played by PICK1 when growth hormone is released by the brain and insulin by the pancreas. Our experiments show that PICK1 deficiency leads to growth hormone and insulin deficiency in both fruit flies and mice. In mice, we can clearly see that the animals become small and fat and less tolerant to sugar when deficient in PICK1. We have reason to believe that the same is true for humans,” says Professor Ulrik Gether from the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, who has made the new discoveries together with his research colleagues Ole Kjærulff, Birgitte Holst and Kenneth Madsen.
