Targeting Obesity for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

• Published in: Journal of cytology & histology Vol. 5; no. 2; p. 1
• Main Author: Yingmei Feng, Dong Zhao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• ISSN: 2157-7099; 2157-7099
• DOI: 10.4172/2157-7099.1000215

The discovery of diabetes mellitus (simplified as "diabetes") could be traced back to 1500 B.C. The first detailed description appeared in 1800, but in the last few decades, the prevalence of diabetes increases dramatically. Till present, according to WHO's report, 247 million people worldwide have been diagonized Diabetes, among which 3.47 million died from diabetes. Thus, WHO projects that diabetes will become the 7th leading cause of death in 2030. The typical feature of diabetes is hyperglycemia as a result of metabolic disorder. As the disease progress, complications develop including macrovascular and microvascular abnormality, leading to multiple organ failure and mortality. Apart from diabetes-associated vascular diseases, numerous studies have documented the association between hyperglycemia and cancer. There are three main types of diabetes: type 1 diabetes mellitus in which pancreatic beta cell death by immune attack; type 2 diabetes mellitus, in which pancreatic beta cells fail to produce sufficient amount of insulin; and gestational diabetes, which occurs in pregnant women due to high demand for insulin production.