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2003 FEB 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to researchers in France and the United States, "Gestational diabetes coincides with elevated circulating progesterone levels. We show that progesterone accelerates the progression of diabetes in female db/db mice."
"In contrast, RU486, an antagonist of the progesterone receptor (PR), reduces blood glucose levels in both female WT and db/db mice," reported Frederic Picard and colleagues at the University of Strasbourg and Universite Louis Pasteur in France and Baylor College of Medicine in the United States. "Furthermore, female, but not male, PR-/- mice had lower fasting glycemia than PR+/+ mice and showed higher insulin levels on glucose injection. Pancreatic islets from female PR-/- mice were larger and secreted more insulin consequent to an increase in beta-cell mass due to an increase in beta-cell proliferation."
Picard and his coauthors concluded, "These findings demonstrate an important role of progesterone signaling in insulin release and pancreatic function and ...