The effects of type 1 diabetes on cerebral white matter.

Aim/hypothesis: Studies investigating the structure, neurophysiology and functional outcomes of white matter among type 1 diabetes patients have given conflicting results. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between type 1 diabetes and white matter hyperintensities.

Method: We assessed white matter integrity (using magnetic resonance imaging), depressive symptoms and neuropsychological function in 114 type 1 diabetes patients and 58 age-matched non-diabetic controls.

Reduction of diabetes-induced oxidative stress, fibrotic cytokine expression, and renal dysfunction in protein kinase Cbeta-null mice.

Diabetes induces the activation of several protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms in the renal glomeruli. We used PKC-beta(-/-) mice to examine the action of PKC-beta isoforms in diabetes-induced oxidative stress and renal injury at 8 and 24 weeks of disease. Diabetes increased PKC activity in renal cortex of wild-type mice and was significantly reduced (<50% of wild-type) in diabetic PKC-beta(-/-) mice.