ToxSci Advance Access originally published online on March 18, 2008
Toxicological Sciences 2008 103(2):225-227; doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfn050
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Toxicology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Nicotine and Type 2 Diabetes
Neurotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: (765) 494-1414. E-mail: borowitz@pharmacy.purdue.edu.
Received February 26, 2008; accepted March 4, 2008
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
There are nearly 20 million type 2 diabetics in the United States. This common disease is characterized by a gradual decline in pancreatic insulin secretion and worsening hyperglycemia. There are many good drugs for treating type 2 diabetes but normal blood glucose levels are difficult to maintain. Hyperglycemia is especially detrimental since high glucose nonenzymatically cross links blood vessel proteins throughout the body, thickens vascular lumina, and interferes with endothelial function. Any kind of peripheral vascular problem would be accentuated by hyperglycemia.
Type 2 diabetes is often part of the "metabolic syndrome" characterized by obesity, hypertension, high blood lipids, and resistance to insulin. The metabolic syndrome affects about 25% of the population and is increasing worldwide with the increase in obesity. The hypertension and high blood lipids which often occur with diabetes further stress vessels in the presence of hyperglycemia. These disease states combined with coronary heart disease give rise