INSERM research in Lyon helps to better understand how stomach bypass surgery affects diabetes

Bypass surgery consists in reducing the size of the stomach and shunting the food through to the lower part of the small intestine. This anti-obesity surgery often also induces a spectacular and very rapid improvement in the diabetes of operated patients.
Research work carried out in mice by scientists at the Claude Bernard University of Lyon, the INSERM (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), the INRA (the French National Institute for Agronomical Research) and the Bichat Hospital in Paris has now been able to explain the mechanisms of action of this phenomenon.
The bypass stimulates intestinal glucose synthesis that is maintained between meals. Detection of this glucose activates a signal which is transmitted to the brain and improves insulin sensitivity.
These results (published in the journal Cell Mechanism) open up new therapeutic approaches to diabetic obesity.
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