In type 1 diabetes, insulin is the 'gold standard' for lowering high blood sugar levels and manage its consequences such as diabetic coma.

Findings at UT Southwestern Medical Center suggests that insulin isn't the only one effective for this purpose. Leptin could be too, as demonstrated by their studies in animal models. Leptin is a hormone produced by the body's fat cells which they found lowers blood glucose levels and maintains them in a normal range for extended periods, longer than insulin does.

The mechanism of leptin's glucose-lowering action appears to involve the suppression of glucagon, a hormone produced by the pancreas that raises glucose levels. Normally, glucagon is released when the glucose, or sugar, level In the blood is low. In insulin deficiency, however, glucagon levels are inappropriately high and cause the liver to release excessive amounts of glucose into the bloodstream. This action is opposed by insulin, which tells the body's cells to remove sugar from the bloodstream.

In the current study, researchers tested for the first time whether a single injection of the leptin gene given to insulin-deficient mice and rats on the verge of death from diabetic coma could reverse the severe condition and prevent the animals from dying. The animals that received the leptin gene began producing excessive amounts of leptin, which reversed all the measurable consequences of type 1 diabetes including weight loss, hyperglycemia and ketoacidosis, a potentially fatal condition that develops when the body doesn't have enough insulin to meet basic metabolic requirements.

The researchers believe that though it is too early to tell if leptin can one day replace insulin in insulin-dependent diabetes, it may help in the management of type 1 diabetes. Human clinical trials of course has to yield consistently positive results.