What Do Diabetes, Islet Cells & Autoimmunity Have in Common?

Sorting through the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, we have discovered that being overweight sets off a cascade of immune responses that accelerate the creation of a full-blown metabolic crisis.

It is not for lack of trying that a cure for either form of diabetes is lacking. Yes, insulin can replace what is missing in type 1 diabetes, and some of the drugs used in type 2 diabetes may help dampen aberrant immune responses. But curing diabetes is not likely to happen in the foreseeable future. Sound familiar?

It has been longer than 100 years since famed German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, MD, coined the term, horror autotoxicus, to describe the damaging effects of the autoimmune response when self attacks self.¹⁵ Whether it be diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or multiple sclerosis, how to reverse the ravages of these self-inflicted wounds and restore our tissues to homeostasis continues to elude us.

Simon M. Helfgott, MD, is associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

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