EditorialDiabetes Mellitus (DM) is a complex metabolic disease associated with many complications including hypertension, coronary heart diseases, atherosclerosis, retinopathy, nephropathy, reproductive and neurodegenerative disorders. A new view on the origin and pathogenesis of DM and its complications shared by many specialists nowadays has emerged from the study of changes in hormonal signaling systems in the tissues and organs of diabetic individuals. These changes occur not only in the signaling pathways regulated by insulin and IGF-1, the principal players responsible for development of DM and its central and peripheral complications, but also in the signaling systems regulated by a wide spectrum of other hormones and neurotransmitters, including leptin, biogenic amines, glutamate, purines, neuropeptides and glycoprotein pituitary hormones. It would be logical to suppose that alterations in these systems may be due to DM-induced changes in the expression, processing and functional activity of hormonal molecules, their cognate receptors and a majority of the downstream signal proteins, which finally leads to abnormalities in fundamental cellular processes, such as growth, differentiation, metabolism and apoptosis and contributes to triggering and development of pathological processes in the diabetic organs and tissues. However, there are many questions concerning the origin, causality and specificity of these alterations in DM and their role in the development of DM-induced complications, which are still unclear and controversial. The first to be solved are the folowing: (1) what is the causal relationship between the altered hormonal signaling and DM, (2) what is the role of the signaling system alterations in the compensatory mechanisms triggered by DM-induced metabolic and functional abnormalities, (3) what is the temporal and functional dynamics of these changes and in which conditions they are irreversible, (4) what is the interaction between the altered signaling cascades in DM and what is its mechanism, and how the changes in some individual cascades extend to the entire signaling network, (5) to which extent alterations in the signaling cascades are specific to the tissues and the cell types, as well as to certain hormones and signal cascades. There is no common view concerning these questions.It is generally accepted that a severe hyperglycemia and insulin deficiency in type 1 DM (T1DM), mild hyperglycemia and insulin resistance typical of type 2 DM (T2DM) and recurrent hypoglycemia as a result of inadequate insulin therapy are the major factors inducing the compensatory changes in hormonal signaling systems. These changes at the initial stage are reversible and can be completely restored with adequate therapy, usually by insulin treatment. With a prolonged action of the above pathogenetic factors the changes in hormonal systems are irreversible and fail to be restored with insulin therapy. This eventually leads to severe functional disturbances in CNS and peripheral tissues characteristic of the l...