The treatment of diabetes in children is always difficult but a blood test might help find out whether it requires insulin treatment or it can be controlled with diet and exercise. Measuring blood levels of adiponectin and leptin, the two proteins secreted by fat cells involved in regulating food intake and body weight, can help determine whether a child has type 1 (insulin-dependent) or type 2 diabetes. Researchers from the University of Florida, Gainesville, suggest that because of the recent explosion in rates of type 2 diabetes observed in children and adolescents, better markers to distinguish this disease from cases of type 1 diabetes, a disorder linked to this age group, are needed. Researchers studied 41 youngsters with type 1 diabetes, 17 with type 2 diabetes, and 43 without either type. Adiponectin levels were similar in type 1 diabetics and healthy subjects, but type 2 diabetics showed significantly lower levels. Conversely, patients with type 2 diabetes had higher levels of leptin than did type 1 diabetics or healthy subjects. These findings may also provide clues to the mechanisms that underlie each disorder and point to targets aimed at preventing diabetes.
Diabetes Care,
August 2004