From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2009-01-04 18:40:43 UTC
Subject: Re: those who are interested in melatonin and pancreatic health
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Having been asked privately to provide more:
from
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39146/title/Lack_of_sleep_has_ge=
netic_link
_with_type_2_diabetes
Parts of the article are:
BEGIN QUOTED SECTIONS
The scientists, including Groop, also did
experiments that looked at how melatonin
might directly interact with insulin-producing cells.
...
The melatonin receptor was thought to be primarily
expressed in the brain... Groop and
colleagues now show that insulin-producing cells,
called beta-cells, in the pancreas of mice,
rats and humans, also have the melatonin receptor.
...
The presence of the melatonin receptor on the
insulin-secreting cells makes it more likely
that the receptor is directly controlling the output of
insulin. When scientists added melatonin
to human beta-cells in the lab, insulin production went down.
end quoted segments
But don't take it out of context. Please, sign in at that
site and read the article.
The original articles are in Nature Genetics.
There is also work in rats indicating that melatonin can
decrease insulin production according to a vet who is
a dear friend. Now, rodents and humans are more
closely related to each other than to members of
Carnivora, and there are obvious differences, so it can
not be automatically expected to be a carry-over, but
melatonin is a very ancient hormone so it could well behave
in the same way in mammals in general. It would be
interesting if someone looked at this with ferret beta cells.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html