Description:

Intensive insulin therapy is the only way to prevent hyperglycemia-induced damage in all patients with Type I, and many with Type 2, Diabetes Mellitus. However, insulin therapy produces a life-threatening side effect – hypoglycemia. Moreover, even on bout of hypoglycemia renders the brain unable to detect future hypoglycemia episodes. This syndrome, known collectively as hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure (HAAF) and hypoglycemia unawareness, allows blood glucose levels to fall to severe, even lethal, levels without detection. It is our goal to understand how the brain’s ability to sense glucose becomes impaired during recurrent hypoglycemia leading to HAAF.