Search

The main cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetes mellitus (DM) is cardiovascular complications. Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) remains incompletely understood. Animal models have been crucial in exploring DCM pathophysiology while identifying potential therapeutic targets. Streptozotocin (STZ) has been widely used to produce experimental models of both type 1 and type 2 DM (T1DM and T2DM). Here, we compared these two models for their effects on cardiac structure, function and transcriptome. Different doses of STZ and diet chows were used to generate T1DM and T2DM in C57BL/6J mice. Normal euglycemic and nonobese sex- and age-matched mice served as controls (CTRL). Immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR and RNA-seq were employed to compare hearts from the three animal groups. STZ-induced T1DM and T2DM affected left ventricular function and myocardial performance differently. T1DM displayed exaggerated apoptotic cardiomyocyte (CM) death and reactive hypertrophy and fibrosis, along with increased cardiac oxidative stress, CM DNA damage and senescence, when compared to T2DM in mice. T1DM and T2DM affected the whole cardiac transcriptome differently. In conclusion, the STZ-induced T1DM and T2DM mouse models showed significant differences in cardiac remodeling, function and the whole transcriptome. These differences could be of key relevance when choosing an animal model to study specific features of DCM.

Purpose This study explores the disease experience of adolescents and young adults with T1DM focusing on the barriers and facilitators that characterise their disease self-care. Self-care requires complex decision making and cooperation between patients, their families, the healthcare team, and the social support system. Personal and social factors affect self-care, and specific challenges impact adolescents and young adults, putting them at a higher risk of poor glycaemic control and more severe complications. Design and methods The study uses a qualitative description approach. Twenty-two people (15 women; 10–30 years old; 2–24 years from diagnosis) were purposefully recruited through snowballing techniques. Data were collected with semi-structured interviews and analysed inductively with semantic thematic analysis. Results Four themes and nine subthemes conceptualise the patients' experience as a life-long journey that has its difficult beginning at the time of diagnosis and continues through the resolution of the initial crisis by integrating disease at the identity level and acquiring expertise. Technology and social environment act both as self-care barriers and facilitators. Conclusions Findings highlight the importance of designing and improving technology related to diabetes accounting for patients' experiences. Second, it is imperative to work towards a de-stigmatisation of diabetes. Finally, health professionals should work with people with T1DM on the psychological aspects of the disease and identity integration. Practice implications Diabetes-related technology should promote usability and acceptability while addressing visibility and device burden issues. Clinicians should pay particular attention during the transition from the paediatric to the adult centres and offer global assessments and treatment.

Highlights A stable or even improved glycemic control was found in adolescents with T1DM using hybrid closed loop system not only during COVID-19 lockdown but also in the weeks after, when daily activities slowly resumed. Although the slowing down of routine daily activities might still have an influence, we believe that the continuation of the health care professional assistance through telemedicine during lockdown might have led to a "dragging effect" in these patients also after its suspension.

Measuring self-care behaviors is crucial in diabetes research worldwide. Having a common measure of self-care represents an unmet need limiting the development of the science. The Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory was developed to address limitations of previous tools that were not theoretically grounded, strong in psychometrics, and clinically validated. However, the generalizability and comparability of the Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory has not been tested across cultures and languages. The aim of this study was to test the invariance of the Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory measurement model between Italy and the United States. Data from two multicenter cross-sectional studies were used. Two diabetes clinics and two hospitals in Italy and the United States were involved. We enrolled 200 adults in Italy and 226 in the United States, all with a confirmed diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory was used to measure self-care maintenance, monitoring, and management behaviors as described in the middle range theory of self-care of chronic illness. Configural, metric, scalar, and strict invariance were tested for each scale. Three of the four measurement equivalence levels were supported in the three Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory Scales, whereas strict invariance—the highest level—was reached only by the Self-Care Maintenance and Self-Care Monitoring Scales. Clear support for the use of the Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory in diabetes research was provided. Cross-national comparisons of self-care between groups of Italian and U.S. patients are supported, based on the invariance of the measurement model. Aggregation of research data obtained using the Self-Care of Diabetes Inventory across countries could support knowledge development in the field of diabetes self-care.

N/A

In the last few years, more attention has been given to the "non-calcemic" effect of vitamin D. Several observational studies and meta-analyses demonstrated an association between circulating levels of vitamin D and outcome of many common diseases, including endocrine diseases, chronic diseases, cancer progression, and autoimmune diseases. In particular, cells of the immune system (B cells, T cells, and antigen presenting cells), due to the expression of 1α-hydroxylase (CYP27B1), are able to synthesize the active metabolite of vitamin D, which shows immunomodulatory properties. Moreover, the expression of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in these cells suggests a local action of vitamin D in the immune response. These findings are supported by the correlation between the polymorphisms of the VDR or the CYP27B1 gene and the pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases. Currently, the optimal plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration that is necessary to prevent or treat autoimmune diseases is still under debate. However, experimental studies in humans have suggested beneficial effects of vitamin D supplementation in reducing the severity of disease activity. In this review, we summarize the evidence regarding the role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of autoimmune endocrine diseases, including type 1 diabetes mellitus, Addison's disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Graves' disease and autoimmune polyendocrine syndromes. Furthermore, we discuss the supplementation with vitamin D to prevent or treat autoimmune diseases.

Increasing evidence suggests that vitamin D exerts multiple effects beyond bone and calcium metabolism. Vitamin D seems to play a role in pancreatic disease, including type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus as well as pancreatic cancer. Vitamin D's immune-modulatory action suggests that it could help prevent type 1 diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, vitamin D may influence β-cell function, insulin sensitivity, and systematic inflammation-all characteristic pathways of that disease. Data from observational studies correlated vitamin D deficiency with risk of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Prospective and ecological studies of pancreatic cancer incidence generally support a beneficial effect of higher 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration as well as inverse correlations between UVB dose or exposure and incidence and/or mortality rate of pancreatic cancer. This review discusses the literature regarding vitamin D's role in risk of diabetes and pancreatic cancer. The results to date generally satisfy Hill's criteria for causality regarding vitamin D and incidence of these pancreatic diseases. However, large randomized, blinded, prospective studies are required to more fully evaluate the potential therapeutic role of vitamin D in preventing pancreatic diseases.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus may be associated with many autoimmune diseases with the common autoimmune pathogenesis. We describe the case of a girl suffering from Type 1 diabetes mellitus and autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroiditis since the childhood and, due to the onset of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis during adolescence, for three years practiced therapy with an anti-TNF drug, etanercept . Currently her inflammatory markers are normal, arthritis is inactive and diabetes is well controlled. During the treatment with anti-TNF drug we observed a significative reduction of insulin dose, probably due to an increased tissue sensitivity secondary to the suppression of the activity of TNF-alpha. Several clinical trials that have evaluated the effect of immunomodulatory agents in diabetic patients, especially in those with recent onset of disease, were already performed but further studies of longer duration on a larger population are needed to assess the role of biologic drugs and immunotherapy in this group of patients.

Interleukin 18 (IL-18) is a cytokine that plays an important role in the Th1 response, by its ability to induce IFN-γ production in T cells and natural killer cells. Functional variants of IL18 gene has been reported as associated with type 1 diabetes (T1D). In the present study were analyzed three promoter single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), at −656 (rs1946519), −607 (rs1946518) and −137 (rs187238) position, in 181 children and adolescents with T1D and 122 healthy individuals, both from metropolitan area of Recife, Northeast of Brazil. T1D patients were stratified according to the presence autoimmune thyroiditis and celiac disease. Allele and genotype frequencies of IL18 SNPs were Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in patients and controls. The allele −137G and the haplotype −656G/−607C/−137G were more frequent in T1D patients (OR=1.82 and 1.97, respectively) then in healthy controls. However, those SNPs were not associated with the age of T1D onset as well as with the insurgence of AITD and/or CD in concomitant with T1D patients. Our findings suggest an association between IL18 promoter SNPs and susceptibility to T1D in Brazilian patients.

We have read with interest the original article by Picarelli et al. [1] describing metabolic control and selected hemocoagulative/anticoagulant parameters in patients with isolated type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and in those affected by celiac disease (CD) too. According to our experience at Pediatric Endocrinology Unit of Trieste, we respectfully disagree with Picarelli’s conclusion and otherwise support the importance of a gluten-free diet (GFD). Picarelli et al. emphasize a better metabolic and glycolipidic control in patients with both DM1 and CD not following a GFD and suggest a protective role of CD in the prothrombotic state of DM1. In our opinion, their study has three critical points. First, all patients presented a glycosylated hemoglobin level (HbA1c)\7.5%. These inclusion criteria could be a selection bias that could influence the results. Second, in accord with literature, we believe that a single variable (glycosylated hemoglobin) is not sufficient to evaluate glycemic control: daily insulin dosages, hypoglycemia frequency, and glycemic variability should be also considered. Glycemic variability, specially, is considered an independent risk factor for complications [2]. Third, they do not analyze the effect of CD on the anthropometric variables nor investigate the presence of other autoimmunities. We followed up 74 patients with diabetes to evaluate the prevalence of celiac disease (CD) in a cohort of children with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and to investigate the influence of CD on growth and metabolic control, before and after gluten-free diet (GFD). A total of 17 celiac-positive subjects (group 1) and 57 celiac-negative subjects (group 2) were examined. Data on growth and metabolic control were collected retrospectively at three different moments (diabetes diagnosis, CD diagnosis, and 6–12 months after a GFD was started). Prevalence of CD accounts for 13% of our cohort, which is comparable with prevalence in Picarelli’s cohort (13.8%). In most of cases (70%), screening test led to the diagnosis. In 70% of CD-positive patients, HbA1c levels were\8% before GFD (vs 54% of CD negative), but only in 42% of them after GFD. In CD-positive cases, good HbA1c levels were often associated with glycemic variability (65%) before GFD, while quite rarely after 6–12 months of diet (28.5%). These results allow us to suppose that before GFD was started, metabolic control was apparently good, but it really improved after GFD (reduction in glycemic variability). Besides, in our cohort, we observed that the co-occurrence of both disease compromises growth, and meanwhile, it improves after that GFD is started (BMI of CD-positive subjects rises from 46 percentile before GFD, to 54 after GFD, P \ 0.05). In our cohort, CD remains asymptomatic in the most of cases (70%), and then, the diagnosis would have been missed if the screening had not been performed, as confirmed by Picarelli’s study too. This result accords with literature [3–10] and supports importance of serological screening in diabetic population. In conclusion, we believe that serological screening is useful for diagnosing asymptomatic CD and GFD in CDpositive diabetic patients can allow growth and diabetes control comparable with patients with T1DM alone. P. Pascolo (&) E. Faleschini G. Tonini A. Ventura Institute for Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy e-mail: paolapascolo@gmail.com

Objective. The Registry for Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in Italy (RIDI) Study Group was established to coordinate the registries of type 1 diabetes in Italy. This report is based on 3,606 children younger than 15 years diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and prospectively registered during 1990-1999 by nine centers, covering > 35% of the Italian population. Research design and methods. Registries were pooled in four geographic macro-areas: north, central, south and insular. The completeness of registration was assessed by the capture-recapture method. Poisson regression analysis was used to evaluate temporal trend in incidence. Results. Large variation in incidence were confirmed not only between Sardegna and the mainland but also among peninsular areas. In Sardegna, there was an excess of boys (the boy-to-girl incidence ratio was 1.4). The overall incidence showed average increases of 3.6% (p