Bacteria Can Cause Type 2 Diabetes

• comments
• 
• 

Everyone has known for quite some time that bacteria spread infectious diseases.  But now according to new research conducted by a team at the University of Iowa, bacteria can even cause Type 2 diabetes.

During the course of the study, researchers from the university found that rabbits developed symptoms associated with Type 2 diabetes after coming in contact with a toxin produced by the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus.  The symptoms found in the rabbits included systemic inflammation, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.

"We basically reproduced Type 2 diabetes in rabbits simply through chronic exposure to the staph superantigen," said lead researcher and microbiologist Patrick Schlievert in a statement.

Obese people are more likely to get their microbiome altered by the excess pressure of the weight on their bodies.  The altered microbiome compromises the colonies of staph bacteria that are known to produce "superantigens."

"What we are finding is that as people gain weight, they are increasingly likely to be colonized by staph bacteria -- to have large numbers of these bacteria living on the surface of their skin," says Schlievert. "People who are colonized by staph bacteria are being chronically exposed to the superantigens the bacteria are producing."

The microbiologists also found during their research that the superantigens interact with fat cells and result in the symptoms associated with Type 2 diabetes.  The researchers further analyzed and compared the level of staph colonies on the skin of four people suffering from diabetes with the dose of superantigen that resulted in diabetes symptoms in rabbits. Both the levels were found to be proportional.

Researchers for the study, published in the journal mBio, hope to create a new therapy to treat Type 2 diabetes that can eliminate the staph bacteria or neutralize the superantigen produced by it.

Type 2 diabetes results from your body not being able to use insulin properly.  This is known as insulin resistance.  It is estimated that almost 30 million people in the United States have Type 2 diabetes with as many as 8 million people living with the condition undiagnosed.  There are approximately 1.7 new confirmed cases every year.

Type 2 diabetes is on the rise worldwide.  In 2013, the International Diabetes Foundation reported that there were more than 382 million people living with the diabetes.  The World Health Organization estimates that about 90 percent of the people around the world who suffer from diabetes have Type 2 diabetes.