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In women with adrenal deficiency or who had their adrenal gland removed, DHEA replacement may prevent the occurrence of diabetes. Treatment with dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) significantly increases insulin sensitivity in hypoadrenal women and may prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes, according to the results of a 12-week trial.
Dr. Nair senior investigator and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota randomized 28 hypoadrenal women to a daily 50-mg dose of DHEA or placebo.
After 12 weeks, the team found that fasting plasma insulin levels were significantly lower with DHEA (42 versus 53 pmol/L). This was also true of glucagon levels (178 versus 195 pmol/L), the researchers report in the March issue of Diabetes.
Moreover, "the average amount of glucose needed to maintain similar blood glucose levels while infusing the same insulin dosages was higher during DHEA administration (358 versus 320 mg per minute)," Dr. Nair’s group reports. Rates of endogenous glucose production did not change with DHEA treatment.
DHEA also prompted a significant reduction in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and HDL cholesterol.
Thus, the researchers conclude that "DHEA replacement could have a potential impact in preventing type 2 diabetes."
However, added Dr. Nair, "we need long-term studies." Also an area for investigation is whether "in older people, DHEA replacement has any effect on insulin sensitivity."
Diabetes 2005;54:765-769.
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FACT:
Ground-breaking living donor transplant: In the first transplant surgery of its kind, a woman with diabetes in Japan received insulin-producing islet cells from her mother, who is alive and does not have diabetes. During the operation at Kyoto University Hospital, part of the mother’s pancreas was removed and the insulin-producing islet cells were collected. It is hoped that knowledge gained in this successful operation will lead to major advances in the search for a possible cure for Type 1 diabetes.