NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An animal study indicates that the cognitive impairment that can occur in people with diabetes appears to result from high levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
By Anthony J. Brown, MD
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An animal study indicates that the cognitive impairment that can occur in people with diabetes appears to result from high levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Diabetes is known to affect many organs, and in the case of the brain these adverse effects can lead to cognitive impairment, Dr. Mark P. Mattson, from Princeton University in New Jersey, and colleagues point out in the research journal Nature Neuroscience.
Using diabetic rats, Mattson's group found that diabetes impairs memory and several neurological processes in the brain. Moreover, corticosterone, which is similar in abundance to cortisol in humans, played a key role in these adverse effects.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Some deficits were reversed by reducing corticosterone levels to normal, the report indicates.
"From a basic science standpoint, it will be important to identify the specific mechanisms by which cortisol adversely affects learning and memory," such as how it affects communication between nerve cells and how it impairs the generation of new neurons, Mattson told Reuters Health.
As for possible clues to treating diabetes-related mental effects, he concluded, "it will be important to determine whether drugs that block the production or actions of cortisol will prevent or reverse cognitive deficits in patients with diabetes."
SOURCE: Nature Neuroscience, online February 17, 2008.
