Schivo Michael, Aksenov Alexander A, Yeates Laura C, Pasamontes Alberto, Davis Cristina E
Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, University of California, Davis , Sacramento, CA , USA ; Center for Comparative Respiratory Biology and Medicine, University of California, Davis , Davis, CA , USA.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2013 Nov 25;4:163. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2013.00163.
Diabetes type-2 and the metabolic syndrome are prevalent in epidemic proportions and result in significant co-morbid disease. Limitations in understanding of dietary effects and cholesterol metabolism exist. Current methods to assess diabetes are essential, though many are invasive; for example, blood glucose and lipid monitoring require regular finger sticks and blood draws. A novel method to study these diseases may be non-invasive breath testing of exhaled compounds. Currently, acetone and lipid peroxidation products have been seen in small scale studies, though other compounds may be significant. As Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have been proposed as a good model for human diabetes, applications of dietary manipulations and breath testing in this population may shed important light on how to design human clinical studies. In addition, ongoing studies indicate that breath testing in dolphins is feasible, humane, and yields relevant metabolites. By studying the metabolic and cholesterol responses of dolphins to dietary modifications, researchers may gain insight into human diabetes, improve the design of costly human clinical trials, and potentially discover biomarkers for non-invasive breath monitoring.
2型糖尿病和代谢综合征正以流行的比例普遍存在，并导致严重的合并症。在饮食影响和胆固醇代谢的理解方面存在局限性。目前评估糖尿病的方法至关重要，尽管许多方法具有侵入性；例如，血糖和血脂监测需要定期扎手指取血和抽血。一种研究这些疾病的新方法可能是对呼出化合物进行非侵入性呼气测试。目前，在小规模研究中已经发现了丙酮和脂质过氧化产物，尽管其他化合物可能也很重要。由于大西洋宽吻海豚（Tursiops truncatus）已被提议作为人类糖尿病的良好模型，在该种群中进行饮食干预和呼气测试的应用可能会为如何设计人类临床研究提供重要线索。此外，正在进行的研究表明，对海豚进行呼气测试是可行的、人道的，并且能产生相关代谢物。通过研究海豚对饮食改变的代谢和胆固醇反应，研究人员可能深入了解人类糖尿病，改进昂贵的人类临床试验设计，并有可能发现用于非侵入性呼气监测的生物标志物。
