High altitude and oxygen: A “promising” study for diabetic patients
Researchers said that diabetes is less common among people who live at high altitudes where oxygen levels are low compared to those who live at sea level, and they predicted that this discovery would lead to new treatments.
Researchers writing in the journal Cell Metabolism on Thursday stated that in conditions where oxygen levels are low , such as those at high altitudes, red blood cells can alter their metabolism to absorb sugar from the bloodstream and turn into “glucose sponges.”
At high altitudes, the ability to carry more glucose gives red blood cells extra energy to deliver oxygen to the body more efficiently, and the report added that this has a beneficial side effect of lowering blood sugar levels.
In previous experiments, researchers observed that mice breathing low-oxygen air had blood glucose levels much lower than normal, meaning that the animals consumed glucose quickly after eating, reducing their risk of developing diabetes.
“When we gave the sugar (to these mice ), it disappeared from the bloodstream almost immediately,” said study author Yolanda Marti-Mateos of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco in a statement.
She added: “We examined the muscles, brain, and liver, but we found nothing in these organs, which explains what was happening.”
Ultimately, her team concluded that red blood cells are a “glucose sink,” a term used to describe anything that draws and uses a lot of glucose from the blood.
Under conditions of low oxygen, the mice not only produced significantly more red blood cells, but each cell consumed a greater amount of glucose than red blood cells produce at normal oxygen levels.
The researchers then tested a drug they developed called “hypoxistat,” which mimics the effects of low-oxygen air.
They said the drug completely reversed high blood sugar in diabetic mice and was more effective than existing drugs.
“This discovery opens the door to thinking about treatments for diabetes in a completely different way, by recruiting red blood cells and turning them into sinks to drain glucose,” said Aisha Gain, a co-author of the study and also of the Gladstone Institutes, in a statement.
References
High altitude and oxygen: A “promising” study for diabetic patients, sky news arabia, www.skynewsarabia.com/technology/1854121-المرتفعات-والأكسجين-دراسة-مبشرة-لمرضى-السكري