The increasing incidence of obesity brings a parallel increase in type 2 diabetes (T2D), a metabolic complication of excess body weight. Despite recent improvements in pharmacotherapy, T2D symptoms are not normalised in up to 50% of patients, meaning a continued high risk of additional serious complications. Bariatric surgery, which involves the removal or re-routing of parts of the stomach and/or intestine, is known to provide significant weight-loss in the morbidly obese. However, whether these procedures can improve uncontrolled T2D, particularly in moderately obese individuals, has been unclear. Now, Schauer et al. report the first controlled trial comparing the results of bariatric surgery with medication versus medication alone in obese subjects with uncontrolled T2D. After 12 months, patients that underwent bariatric surgery had lost more weight and had decreased their medication use, whereas those receiving medication alone had lost very little weight and had increased their medication use. Although glycaemic control improved in all groups, 42% of those in the surgery cohort had normalised blood glucose, compared with only 12% in the medication alone group. Although larger studies will be needed to assess long-term outcomes, this study suggests that bariatric surgery combined with medication is a promising therapy for obese individuals with T2D.
DMM Journal Meeting 2023: Infectious Diseases Through an Evolutionary Lens
The abstract submission deadline for our 2023 Journal Meeting ‘Infectious Diseases Through an Evolutionary Lens’ is 14 July 2023. Find out more and register here.
The Forest of Biologists
The Forest of Biologists is a biodiversity initiative created by The Company of Biologists, with support from the Woodland Trust. For every Research and Review article published in Disease Models & Mechanisms a native tree is planted in a UK forest. In addition to this we are protecting and restoring ancient woodland and are dedicating these trees to our peer reviewers. Visit our virtual forest to learn more.
Propose a new Workshop for 2025
Do you have an idea for a Workshop? If so, click here. We are now accepting proposals for our 2025 Workshops programme. As the scientific organiser, your involvement will be focused on the science. We'll take care of all the logistics. In 2025 we'll continue our efforts to diversify our Workshop programme and will be reserving one of our Workshops for an application from a Global South country to host an event overseas.
How stromal cells restrict liver cancer invasion
In our recent editor’s choice, Liqin Zhu and colleagues describe how they used in vitro liver spheroid models consisting of both parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells to reveal a hepatoprotective role for peritumoral hepatic stellate cells in liver tumorigenesis.
And from perspective… Hacking haematopoiesis – emerging tools for examining variant effects
Thousands of genomic loci have been linked to hematopoietic traits and diseases, yet many await functional validation. Michael Gundry and Vijay G. Sankaran discuss recent advances in genome editing and the challenges associated with using these techniques to assess variant function in primary hematopoietic cells.
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