Menin: Pancreatic Protein Providing Clues to Gestational Diabetes

Filed in archive Developments , Notable , Research on November 4, 2007

Stanford University School of Medicine researchers may have a chance in elucidating the mechanism by which diabetes develops during pregnancy (gestational diabetes), in their discovered pancreatic protein called menin.




The pancreatic protein menin was already known to have a role in preventing cancer in the pancreas and other organs - when menin is present it blocks the growth of pancreatic cells, thereby prevents cancer.

The said finding about menin could lead to new treatments for all forms of diabetes.

The study may help explain why roughly 5 percent of women develop diabetes temporarily while pregnant, a condition called gestational diabetes. That condition is a leading cause of birth defects and can predispose the child to develop diabetes later in life.

We already know that gestational diabetes has significant risks to both mother and baby.

Results of the above study are published in the Nov. 2 issue of the journal Science.

Find more details from Stanford University School of Medicine.