Single injection cures both obesity and diabetes

A single injection can cure both obesity and type 2 diabetes without any side effects.

How is the research conducted?

Researchers, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​fed adult mice either a standard diet or a high-fat diet for 10 weeks.

The weight of those fed the standard diet increased by 27%, while the other group of mice increased by 72%, making them obese.

The obese mice were then injected with FGF21. The normal weight mice were given a placebo.

All the experimental mice were then fed their respective diets for about a year, with their body weights monitored throughout this time.

Hormone injections make obese mice lose weight

Results suggested that the weight of mice injected with FGF21 returned to normal within a few weeks of injection, making them similar in size to those fed a standard diet.

Obese mice, which are insulin resistant, also had normal hormone levels after the injection.

FGF21, which is associated with bone loss, did not cause any changes in bone density or mass in mice.

When researchers fed old mice a high-fat diet and then injected them with FGF21, the mice initially lost 10 percent of their weight and continued to lose weight until they were the same size as normal mice.

Scientists conducted this second experiment because the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes increases with age.

While these findings, published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, are promising, the researchers add that larger, longer studies in animals are needed before FGF21 treatment can be considered in humans.

Hormone injections are said to increase a person's temperature, leading to weight loss.

The End of Diabetes Injections?

The comments come after research published last month showed scientists have created a pill-like insulin that could spell the end of injections for diabetics.

Unlike previous failed attempts to create an oral diabetes drug, this pill survives the acidic environment of the stomach to release insulin into the blood, according to Harvard researchers.

After mice were given the unnamed drug, blood glucose levels fell 38% within two hours and 45% after 10 hours, compared with a 49% drop within 60 minutes in those given insulin.

Researchers believe the drug could overcome the fear of pain and needles felt by some diabetics.

Dr Mark Prausnitz, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the research, commented: 'This study shows remarkable results, in that oral insulin works as well as regular injectable insulin'.

It is not clear when the drug will be available and whether it will benefit people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.