Diabetes Research

Baylor University Medical Center and Baylor Medical Center at Irving are researching inhaled insulin for short-term glucose control. Results from four clinical trials show this method of delivering insulin is effective for patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The studies indicate this therapy is a viable alternative to injections and improves the patients' quality of life.

In addition, because obesity is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, Baylor is conducting weight-loss studies testing various medications such as Axokine^®, which work to control hunger and target portion control.

Baylor Dallas' laboratory has also developed a technique that uses ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) to deliver drugs or genes to specific tissues, including the heart, pancreas, kidney and brain. This involves the attachment of drugs or genes to gas-filled microbubbles, which are circulated through the intravascular space and mechanically destroyed within the target organ by ultrasound. This is currently being tested on rats.

Baylor researchers have also successfully targeted reporter genes to pancreatic islets, using the rat insulin promoter to achieve a high level of islet specificity, as well as conferring regulation of islet gene expression by glucose feeding of the animals. They now propose to extend this work to a naturally occurring animal model of islet cell destruction - the Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rat. Find more information on a research study at Baylor.