Abstract
A serendipitous discovery by researchers in Belgium might have advanced the search for a new treatment and diagnostic test for adult-onset diabetes (Nature, 4 January). While studying mice that had been engineered to lack a tumour repressor gene known as SHIP 2, a research team led by Stephane Schumans at IRIBHN observed that instead of succumbing to cancer, the mice died within three days of birth, suffering from symptoms of hyperglycaemia – low blood sugar. The mice also showed hypersensitivity to insulin. Schumanns suggests that SHIP 2, or its variants, might be implicated in the onset of diabetes, and thus is a possible candidate for genetic testing for the disorder. At present, the link between the gene and diabetes is theoretical, but the Belgian team is now looking for similar mutations in humans. M.J.D.
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