High fat diets can cause Type 2 diabetes

Eating a high fat diet has now been found by Australian scientists as being linked to the development of Type 2 diabetes.

The research has been done at the Garven Institute in Sydney by Dr Laybutt and PhD scholar Mia Akerfeldt. They have found that a “master regulator” gene known as Id1 sets the path for other genes in a specific cell type and is effectively switched on when a high fat diet is consumed by people. The same institute has scientists working on Id1inhibitors for stopping cancer development.

Dr Laybutt said, “We’re saying that Id1 is the molecular link between environmental factors, such as high fat diet, and beta cell dysfunction. We’ve demonstrated our finding in animal models and cell culture, and we’ve also shown that pancreatic tissue from diabetic people expresses Id1. If Id1 inhibitors are shown to be safe in clinical trials for cancer, I see no reason why they should not also be trialled for diabetes.”

Further work is underway in using this blocking technique for cancer, on doing the same thing with blocking or stopping diabetes in mice, before eventually moving to human trials.

Type 2 diabetes is typically associated with diets high in sugar and fat and with poor exercise. It is the result of the body becoming less able to produce and use insulin.