Protective Role of Recombinant Human Thrombomodulin in Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a global threat to human health. The ultimate cause of diabetes mellitus is insufficient insulin production and secretion associated with reduced pancreatic β-cell mass. Apoptosis is an important and well-recognized mechanism of the progressive loss of functional β-cells. However, there are currently no available antiapoptotic drugs for diabetes mellitus. This study evaluated whether recombinant human thrombomodulin can inhibit β-cell apoptosis and improve glucose intolerance in a diabetes mouse model. A streptozotocin-induced diabetes mouse model was prepared and treated with thrombomodulin or saline three times per week for eight weeks. The glucose tolerance and apoptosis of β-cells were evaluated. Diabetic mice treated with recombinant human thrombomodulin showed significantly improved glucose tolerance, increased insulin secretion, decreased pancreatic islet areas of apoptotic β-cells, and enhanced proportion of regulatory T cells and tolerogenic dendritic cells in the spleen compared to counterpart diseased mice treated with saline. Non-diabetic mice showed no changes. This study shows that recombinant human thrombomodulin, a drug currently used to treat patients with coagulopathy in Japan, ameliorates glucose intolerance by protecting pancreatic islet β-cells from apoptosis and modulating the immune response in diabetic mice. This observation points to recombinant human thrombomodulin as a promising antiapoptotic drug for diabetes mellitus.

Genome-wide screens identify SEL1L as an intracellular rheostat controlling collagen turnover

“…This latter process is vitally important in controlling normal tissue 3 homeostasis and mitigating fibrosis as demonstrated in several recent publications that show the effects of interfering with this process in animal models of fibrosis [2][3][4][5] . Although an impaired collagen-degradative environment is a feature of fibrotic diseases such as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), Scleroderma, and cirrhosis [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] , very little is known about the role of cell-based collagen degradation in human disease.…”