Researchers have finally uncovered why type 1 diabetes tends to be more aggressive and severe when it develops in very young children.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the cells in the pancreas responsible for regulating blood sugar levels.
The new study revealed that the pancreas is still in the process of developing during early childhood, especially before the age of seven making it much more vulnerable to immune system attacks.
Scientists believe new medications could help delay the disease by giving the pancreas enough time to fully mature, potentially easing its severity.
Type 1 diabetes currently affects around 400,000 people in the United Kingdom.
Gracie, an eight year old from Merseyside, became severely ill on Halloween in 2018. What began as a mild cold quickly turned into a medical emergency.
“She went from being a happy one year old who loved to sing and dance, to almost dying in less than two days,” recalls her father, Gareth.
“The diagnosis was the hardest moment of our lives. Overnight, everything became 10 times more complicated,” he says.
The Nye family had to make drastic changes, tracking every meal and drink, constantly checking blood sugar levels, and administering insulin to help Gracie’s body absorb sugar properly.
Now, with the help of a glucose monitor and an insulin pump, Gracie is thriving. “She’s absolutely bossing diabetes,” her dad proudly says.
Until recently, doctors were unsure why children like Gracie, especially those diagnosed before age seven, suffer from a faster, harsher form of the disease compared to those diagnosed later in life.
The new research, published in Science Advances, links the difference to the development of the pancreas’ beta cells, the insulin-producing cells.
Scientists at the University of Exeter studied pancreatic tissue from 250 donors to observe how beta cells form and change with age, both in healthy individuals and those with type 1 diabetes.
In early life, beta cells exist as small, scattered clusters. As people grow older, these clusters multiply and mature into larger groups known as Islets of Langerhans.
The study showed that when the immune system begins attacking the pancreas, the smaller beta cell clusters are wiped out before they can mature.
Larger, mature islets, however, are more resilient, allowing patients to continue producing small amounts of insulin, which helps reduce the severity of their symptoms.
This discovery could pave the way for treatments that protect developing pancreatic cells, buying young patients time for their organs to strengthen before the disease takes hold.
