[IPp] Dexamethasone use in Lipoatrophy
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From: "Janette Dunn" <email @ redacted>
To: <email @ redacted>
Subject: [IPu] Dexamethasone use in Lipoatrophy
Date sent: Wed, 18 May 2005 10:00:19 +1000
Send reply to: email @ redacted
more on lipoatrophy from a 2005 post
Michael
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This is from Diabetes Health Magazine
Dexamethasone Halts Rare Complication of Type 1 Diabetes-
by Ben Eastman
February 1997
A new treatment method has been discovered for lipoatrophy, a rare but
problematic complication of type I diabetes. The condition is an
adverse effect of the immune system's interaction with insulin that
results in dents in the skin at insulin injection sites. These dents
are caused by atrophy of the tissue directly beneath the skin.
Insulin is known to produce allergic and immunological reactions in
some people. In such a reaction, the body's immune system attacks the
foreign substance, like it would a disease-causing bacteria.
Lipoatrophy is an example of this type of immune system response. It
includes the production of cytokines, proteins that work as mediators
between the cells in the "infected" area and help generate the
response.
In a study published in the November 1996 issue of Diabetes Care
researchers hypothesized that the cytokines might also cause the tissue
atrophy at injection sites. In laboratory experiments researchers found
that dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory medication, inhibited the
production of cytokines.
After these laboratory findings, dexamethasone was used on a 25-year-
old woman with lipoatrophy on her arms, abdomen and hips. A mixture of
insulin and dexamethasone was injected directly into her lipoatrophic
injection sites. This treatment had no effect on the patient's
metabolic control and her daily insulin requirements did not change.
After 12 months of treatment, all of her lipoatrophic areas
disappeared.
-B. Eastman
.
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