A study confirms the development of type 1 diabetes in fetuses

Cairo – By Mohamed Salah – A new study found that type 1 diabetes may develop when children are in the womb, and experts previously believed that the condition only occurs when children are older than six months, but the new study led by the University of Exeter in England found that the disease Autoimmunity, which occurs when the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells, can develop before the birth of children, and according to what the British Daily Mail reported, experts said the breakthrough sends hope that scientists can find new treatments for type 1 diabetes..

Diabetes begins when blood sugar levels rise to risky levels and can lead to fatal complications, including amputations, vision loss, kidney disease, stroke and heart disease..

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that cannot be prevented and usually occurs in childhood, but type 2 diabetes often results from malnutrition..

Until recently, it was believed that children under the age of six months could develop diabetes, which results from a genetic mutation rather than type 1 diabetes..

But a study of more than 400 children with diabetes was recently published in a journal Diabetology, Found that babies may also develop the disease before the age of six months even if they do not have the genetic mutation.

This is the first time that an autoimmune condition that is not caused by a single genetic change has appeared in young children.

The research team also discovered that children with very early type 1 diabetes had a lower than average birth weight.

Usually the fetus begins to make insulin in the womb, which helps it to grow, but the new results indicate that the immune attack behind type 1 diabetes can start before birth in some children, which leads to a decrease in insulin production and thus a lower birth weight..

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By revealing for the first time the presence of type 1 diabetes in the first few months of life, these important findings rewrite our understanding of when it can strike, said Dr. Elizabeth Robertson, Research Director at the Diabetes Foundation UK who co-funded the study. That is the case, and when could the immune system start to falter“.

“We now need to study together how and why type 1 diabetes can develop at such a young age, and this can also open important insights about the causes of type 1 diabetes in general in people of all ages, and it will be necessary.” To develop treatments that stop or prevent this life-changing condition in children“.

Dr Matthew Johnston, Research Fellow at the Exeter Center of Excellence in Diabetes explained (ExCEED) At the University of Exeter: “It has been demonstrated in this study that type 1 diabetes can appear in the first few months of life and in a small subset of children even before birth.“.

He continued, “We also found that diabetes diagnosed at a young age was associated with the rapid progression of the complete destruction of insulin-producing beta cells.”“.

Dr. Richard Oram, from the centerDiabetes UK Harry Keen At the University of Exeter: “We hope that the following stages of this work, as we study the immune system in more detail, will help explain how type 1 diabetes can develop this early and whether these ideas open new ways to prevent or treat the condition in the future.“.