666 Role for epidermal keratinocytes in small fiber degeneration in diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most common diabetic complications, affecting 25% of diabetic patients. Patients with DPN experience neuropathic pain and small fiber degeneration, which can progress to complete loss of peripheral sensory axons. Uncovering the molecular mechanisms underlying nerve damage and sensory loss in DPN remains a major challenge and a lack of mechanistic understanding has long hampered effective therapy of DPN. Recently, we found that feeding mice with a high fat diet (HFD) over several weeks resulted in the precisely timed appearance of glucose intolerance together with the primary symptoms of PDN in human subjects, specifically the development of pain behaviors such as mechanical allodynia and the dying back of cutaneous innervation.
Source: Journal of Investigative Dermatology - Category: Dermatology Authors: Tags: Neuro-Cutaneous Biology and Inflammation Source Type: research