Publication at Second Faculty of Medicine |
2009
Abstract
Diabetes in children and adolescents differs from diabetes in adults. Almost all childhood diabetics have a problem with the synthesis of insulin, with its absolute amount.
They produce little or no insulin. It is either (in type 1 diabetes) that the β-cells of the islets of Langerhans have been destroyed by an autoimmune process, or (in monogenic diabetes types) that the genetically defective β-cells are not sufficient to synthesize an adequate amount of insulin.
Type 2 diabetes is rare in children here (well under 1%), but it occurs in very obese Hispanic children in the US. Insulin deficiency is relative in type 2 diabetes, because β-cells are not sufficient for the functional demands of an organism with high insulin resistance.