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Study to evaluate why diabetes complications are not present in all patients
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Extensive research has been conducted regarding the development of complications in patients with diabetes. Now researchers in Sweden are asking the opposite question: Why do some patients not develop diabetes complications?
“The majority of diabetics will over time develop severe or fatal complications, but 10% to 15% never do. They are the ones we are interested in in the PROLONG study,” Valeriya Lyssenko, MD, PhD, said in a press release. She and Peter Nilsson, MD, PhD, both from Lund University Diabetes Center, will lead the Protective Genes in Diabetes and Longevity (PROLONG) study in Sweden.
Despite decades of research on diabetes complications such as nephropathy, retinopathy, myocardial infarction and stroke, the fundamental mechanisms are not yet fully known.
The PROLONG study will start with a pilot study of patients with diabetes duration of more than 30 years. At a later stage, patients will be recruited from all hospitals and health care centers in Sweden. They will be compared with diabetes patients who have already developed severe complications despite having had diabetes for less than 15 years. The 30-year limit was chosen because a person who has had diabetes for such a long time without developing diabetes is unlikely to do so later in life, according to the researchers.
Currently, there are about 12,000 people in Sweden who have had diabetes for more than 30 years; of these, 1,600 have had it for more than 50 years, according to the researchers.
“About half of these diabetic veterans do not have major complications. Two-thirds of those who have had diabetes for more than 50 years have escaped complications. Clearly, they are different, and we want to find out what it is that protects them,” Lyssenko said in the release.
Participants in the PROLONG study will answer questions about their lifestyle and personal and family history. Various blood samples, including genetic tests, will be analyzed, and close relatives of the participants will also be invited to take part in the study.
“If we can identify factors protecting these veterans from devastating complications, then it might be possible to develop drugs that can do the same thing,” Lyssenko said in the release.
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