Funded Research

White blood cells called B cells produce antibodies which are very important markers of the immune attack on insulin producing beta cells. Normally B cells protect against infection, but they also help turn off immune responses when no longer needed. We will study if the B cells that can dampen other immune responses (known as regulatory B cells) are defective in patients with diabetes. Our overall aim is to understand how B cells contribute to immune damage in type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and whether alterations in B cell function can be used as markers to monitor disease. Individuals will be asked to provide blood samples. We will study whether the B cells that can dampen down immune responses (regulatory B cells) have abnormal function in people with diabetes, compared with control subjects. This research will be important for understanding why people develop T1DM. In addition, new immune therapies are in trial to protect beta cells and this research may give us a new tool to detect how well these treatments work, vitally important for improvement of design of treatments for T1DM over the next 5-10 years.

High fat, high calorie diets are associated with the increasing incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms responsible for impaired insulin action with high fat, high calorie diets are still poorly understood. However, there is a growing body of evidence, mainly from animal studies, that dietary fish oils can help to prevent or reverse a decline in tissue responsiveness to insulin. To date, human studies are less convincing due to low doses of fish oils administered and poor control of dietary intake. These study design problems mean that the particular mechanism for any effect of fish oil has not yet been established. Therefore, we plan to undertake a well controlled study using higher dose fish oil supplementation. We aim to determine whether substituting some of the fat in the diet with fish oils can help to maintain insulin action, and to determine the mechanisms for any effect. Our aims can be accomplished using an experimental model with high fat overfeeding in healthy humans to induce metabolic stress.

Hypoglycaemia, which is a dangerously low blood sugar levels is a risk in the newborn babies of mothers with type 1 diabetes. Hypoglycaemia is particularly problematic among babies who are born prematurely (approximately 1 in 3 newborns) and among overweight or obese babies (approximately 1 in 2 newborns). As well as requiring additional neonatal care (thereby separating mothers and their newborns), it has negative effects on breast feeding success and potentially adverse effects on infant brain development. Glucose control in newborn babies is closely related to their mother’s glucose levels before and during labour. Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) is a new tool for accurately measuring glucose levels, both during pregnancy and in newborns. We propose to use CGM to better understand “normal” glucose levels in newborn infants of women with type 1 diabetes. We will be able to compare the mother’s glucose control in pregnancy with that of her newborn baby, to establish what level of glucose control in the mother is required to prevent low glucose levels in newborn infants.