"ReSearch for the Future" magazine (Pdf, 10 Mb) - Lund University

medicineDid you know ...?... Every year, researchers at Lund University generate large quantities of valuable knowledge and solutions to current problems?But for new discoveries and ideas to be beneficial to society, research findings must be disseminated beyond academicboundaries. LUIS, Lund University Innovation System, helps to make research useful to society. http://luis.lu.se/enAnton part of the key toWhen Anton was born, a test was done on the umbilical cordwhich showed that he had a raised genetic risk of developingtype 1 diabetes. Since then he has been one of several thousandchildren participating in Teddy, a study which is expected tolead to a better understanding of the disease and to a vaccine.Lisa Rosén conducts research on how long theenergy in food lasts.GI not the wholetruth about foodThe glycaemic index (GI), which hasgiven rise to a whole range of diets,does not always provide an accuratepicture of the food we eat. For example,rye bread and white pasta havebeen given an undeserved bad reputation,according to Liza Rosén, Doctorof Applied Nutrition, who wants to offera more detailed picture with a newmeasurement.A food that produces a low and stableblood sugar curve over a longerperiod of time receives the sameGI value as a product with ablood sugar response thatgoes up high but quicklyfalls again. Therefore,certain foodswith long and stableblood sugar responsesare at risk of beingcondemned.Pasta goodLiza Rosén’s complementary‘glycaemicprofile’,GP, provides informationon how longthe energy in the foodlasts. With GP, it is possibleto read the highestblood sugar level reachedand the time it takes beforethe blood sugar curve returnsto the fasting level.“GI needs to be supplemented.In general, a product with lowGI is always good. But a productwith high GI does not always have tobe bad. Pasta, for example, is compact andit takes time for the body to break it down. Itdoesn’t produce any extreme swings in bloodsugar”, says Liza Rosén. ●It is 10 a.m. on a Monday morning in October. Anton,his little sister Klara and mum Cecilia are visitingthe Teddy Clinic. Once every three months theycome to meet a nurse who does a blood test on Antonand then goes through his recent eating habits andanything particular that has happened in their livesthat could be significant. Anton and Klara play with awooden train on rails in one of the consulting rooms.“Of course it was difficult to begin with when wefound out that Anton was at a higher risk. But it isn’treally something we think about now; we live our livesas normal”, says Cecilia.Anton is used to coming to the clinic, and, if heand his family want to, the researchers will follow hisdevelopment until he reaches the age of 15.“For me it went without saying that we would takepart. It is hoped that this could help children in thefuture”, says Cecilia Nordqvist.Only a few of the children who have a raised riskof developing type 1 diabetes go on to develop thedisease. The researchers want to find out what it isthat causes some children to get the disease whileWithin just a few days of having obesitysurgery, the majority of patients cease tosuffer from type 2 diabetes.At the Lund UniversityDiabetes Centre, a researchgroup is trying toget to grips with the apparentlyinexplicable connection.It is hoped that in the long run acure could be developed.“It is thrilling that the patientsrecover so quickly. This fact is soothers are unaffected. A total of 8 600 children fromSweden, the USA, Finland and Germany are takingpart; 2 225 of them are from Skåne. Since the projectstarted in 2004, 27 of the children from Skåne havedeveloped diabetes and around 100 have developedantibodies against their beta cells, which can be apreliminary stage in the disease. Åke Lernmark,Professor of Experimental Diabetes Research at theLund University Diabetes Centre, says that this isa sufficiently high number of children to make itstatistically interesting to look at their blood tests. Sofar, he and his colleagues have observed at least oneimportant common denominator among the childrenwho have developed antibodies.Past disease“The children have been ill, often with stomach ache,but without getting a fever. Illness with high fever, onthe other hand, appears to protect against antibodiesthat attack the children’s beta cells”, says Åke Lernmark,who suspects that a stomach virus could causethe children to develop antibodies.Extensive lab work has now begun in which thechildren’s stool samples, which are regularly sent in tothe Teddy study, will be analysed. This is expected tobe completed in summer 2012 at the earliest.“If it turns out that it is a virus that is responsiblefor the children developing antibodies against theirbeta cells, it shouldn’t take more than a year or twofor the vaccine manufacturers to develop a vaccine”,says Åke Lernmark.●Åke Lernmark, Professor of Experimental DiabetesResearch, awaits the analyses from the Teddy studywith excitement.Obesity operations a mystery fclear that it cannot be ignored”, says Nils Wierup, aReader in Experimental Endocrinology.Dr Wierup heads a research group made up of diabetesresearchers, experts in vascular medicine and bacteriologists.They are hoping to identify what mechanismscause the patients to recover. The research will partly bebased on analysis of samples taken from patients beforeand after they undergo a gastric bypass. Tests on pigshave also been carried out as part of the study.Changes to the bacterial flora in the gut, to theeffects of the hormones in the gut or to the bloodsupply to the gut are theories which the researchgroup currently suspects may lead to a solution to4 reSEARCH for THE FUTURE