Researchers have collected hundreds of COVID-19–related diabetes case reports since August of last year, in hopes of teasing apart the complex links between the two diseases.
Lactation boosts the quantity and quality of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, likely reducing a woman’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The original work found that an anti-malaria drug or the neurotransmitter GABA could increase the number of insulin-producing pancreatic cells in mice.
Researchers used a trio of transcription factors to transform pancreatic duct cells in vivo into β-like cells that secrete insulin and improve diabetes symptoms.
The results, which could not be replicated, suggested that a hormone increased pancreatic β cell proliferation, supplanting insulin as a front-line diabetes treatment in mice.