From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2012-02-12 17:12:35 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Re: Insulinoma Question
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
It is important to remember that this is a hypothesis NOT anything that has been proven:
On Feb 12, 2012, at 6:31 AM, Kim wrote:
> Simply put, Insulinoma is a carbohydrate overload problem for an animal never evolved to digest carbohydrates.
>
>
Two people I regard highly, both of whom I like and one of whom is also a friend, independently came up with the hypothesis: Dr. Jerry Murray and Dr. Mark Finkler.
So it is important to not treat it as fact when it lacks proof currently, but to remember that it *is a possibility*.
Yes, I know that is gets shouted around a lot as if it were fact by a few people -- none of whom is an originator of the hypothesis since they realize it is a hypothesis -- and that misleads some into thinking that it has been demonstrated, but volume and accuracy do not always go hand in hand, and scientific proof is not a debate nor a popularity contest but a very strident attempt for maximum accuracy with the elimination of other possibilities, so just know that this hypothesis MIGHT pan out once good enough studies are finally done or it might not, and take precautions for safety while realizing that they might not work.
The origin of the hypothesis began with a now largely disproven hypothesis in humans which in turn lead to the same hypothesis in cats, also largely disproven, that dietary carbohydrates might lead to diabetes. In cats the more recent work indicates that lack of exercise and obesity are major causative factors for diabetes in addition to some breeds being more inclined to it and one of the genders is more inclined to diabetes. (See separate FHL Archives, not Yahoogroups archives, which can be linked to from two places on the homepage.)
Interestingly, none of the diabetic ferrets, who did not have it secondary to corrected insulinoma, whom we have personally had were obese, BTW, and they did not share markings or coloration, but all three were dealing with other serious health problems at the time that the diabetes turned on, with infection in at least two of the three at that time. (I also know a person whose diabetes arose secondary to infection, in his case it was influenza but other infections can at times damage organs that serve in the endocrine system.)
BTW, some recent studies have perhaps -- since more work is needed -- some intriguing implications for insulinoma work in ferrets. The location in which beta cells are created from their originating stem cells may well be found, and if so then it becomes possible to look at what alters those cells because that may be the origin of insulinoma (as well perhaps of a type of diabetes, and congenital hypoglycemia, and might lead to a corrective approach for multiple types of diabetes), and a work in PLoS from a few years ago indicates that beta cells are produced in waves which could explain why they so often are seeded in many locations in the pancreas if the originating mutation is to the stem cells that create the mutated beta cells which are insulinomas, rather than to the beta cells themselves.
The PLoS article is in the FHL, I think, and also see:
Curr Diab Rep. 2011 Jul 29. [Epub ahead of print]
Potential Pathways to Restore β-Cell Mass: Pluripotent Stem Cells, Reprogramming, and Endogenous Regeneration.
Baiu D, Merriam F, Odorico J.
and
European Journal of Endocrinology (2010) 162 391â398 ISSN 0804-4643
CLINICAL STUDY
Increased EpCAM expression in malignant insulinoma: potential clinical implications
Andreas Raffel1, Claus F Eisenberger1, Kenko Cupisti1, Matthias Schott2, Stephan E Baldus3, Imke Hoffmann1, Feride Aydin1, Wolfram T Knoefel1 and Nikolas H Stoecklein
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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