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Low testosterone may raise diabetes risk
In male mice, androgen receptor deficiency in beta cells impairs glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, increasing the risk for developing type 2 diabetes, according to recent study findings.
The study could help identify new treatments for type 2 diabetes in the large number of men with low testosterone due to age or prostate cancer therapies.
"We have found the cause — and a potential treatment pathway — for type 2 diabetes in testosterone-deficient men," Franck Mauvais-Jarvis, MD, Price-Goldsmith professor in the department of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine, said in a press release. "Our study shows that testosterone is an antidiabetic hormone in men. If we can modulate its action without side effects, it is a therapeutic avenue for type 2 diabetes."
Researchers used specially bred male mice with pancreatic beta cells lacking androgen receptors; the mice, along with controls, consumed a Western-style diet for 9 weeks. All mice then underwent a glucose challenge test. Researchers found the specially bred mice exhibited reduced fasted and fed serum insulin concentrations vs. controls and developed hyperglycemia in both fed and fasted states.
Researchers also administered testosterone and glucose directly to human islet cells treated with an androgen receptor inhibitor and islet cells harvested from mice without androgen receptors. In both cases, islet cells showed decreased insulin production vs. islet cells not treated with a testosterone inhibitor.
Further experiments in cultured mouse and human islet cells showed the insulin-producing effect of testosterone could be abolished by inhibiting glucagon-like peptide-1.
“Importantly, the insulinotropic function of the [androgen receptor] is present in human islets at physiological concentrations of testosterone,” the researchers wrote. “Together, these observations suggest that testosterone is necessary for normal [glucose-stimulated insulin secretion] in men, and men with androgen deficiency display a deficit in [glucose-stimulated insulin secretion] that predisposes them to [type 2 diabetes].”