German Center for Diabetes Research

Sleep forms flexible context representations in toddlers

Abstract Sleep consolidates episodic memory through a hippocampus-dependent process in adults. Whether and how sleep supports memory consolidation during early life, when hippocampal function is immature, remains unclear. Here, we examined effects of sleep on the consolidation of...

Insulin Resistance in the 21st Century: New Takes on an Old Problem—2025 Diabetes , Diabetes Care , and Diabetologia Expert Forum

Insulin resistance is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes and several other metabolic diseases. However, efforts to improve insulin resistance are hindered by the biological complexity inherent to insulin action, as well as conceptual and methodological limitations to date. In Septembe...

Insulin resistance in the 21st century: new takes on an old problem—2025 Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia Expert Forum

Insulin resistance is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes and several other metabolic diseases. However, efforts to improve insulin resistance are hindered by the biological complexity inherent to insulin action, as well as conceptual and methodological limitations to date. In Septembe...

The impact of physical activity and exercise timing on metabolic health among individuals at high risk of type 2 diabetes

The timing of physical activity and exercise has been suggested to play a role in metabolic health. This narrative review synthesises current evidence on the impact of habitual physical activity and exercise timing on glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity, blood lipids and...

Lysed erythrocyte membranes metabolically prime endothelial cells for angiogenesis

Endothelial dysfunction is a hallmark of pathological angiogenesis and associated with erythrocyte extravasation and lysis. Whether mediators released from lysed erythrocytes instruct endothelial cells (ECs) for new vessel formation is unknown. Here, we show that the membrane fra...

Gut microbiome maturation in early childhood interacts with host genetics to predict type 1 diabetes risk

Prospective evidence linking early-life microbiome development and host genetics with type 1 diabetes (T1D) risk is limited. Here, we describe how gut microbiome maturation and host genetics influence T1D risk in the TEDDY study. We analysed 12,151 longitudinal metagenomes and ho...

Real-world use of bempedoic acid for hypercholesterolaemia: a German multicentre, retrospective, cohort study

Abstract Background Dyslipidaemia remains a leading cause of death in Germany despite an improving therapeutic landscape, with many patients not achieving guideline-recommended low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goals. Bempedoic acid, an adenosine triphosphate citrate ly...

Toll-like receptor 2 modulates age-associated insulitis and fibrotic remodeling of Langerhans islets

Abstract Background The steadily increasing aging population highlights the importance of maintaining health at an advanced age. Metabolic diseases are among the most prevalent age-related disorders, and the Langerhans islets, critical regulators of glucose homeostasis, are parti...

International consensus guidance for general population screening for islet autoantibodies to diagnose early-stage type 1 diabetes: a nominal group technique process

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that targets and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreatic islets. The incidence of type 1 diabetes is rising globally. At the clinical diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, between 20% and 67% of children and adolescents present wit...

The metacognitive paradox of OCD: confidence is globally reduced but shows increased sensitivity to local evidence

Confidence is a critical metacognitive signal that guides performance. Biases in confidence, such as excessive doubt, are hallmark features of mental health disorders, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Yet, the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms and how they link...

Reproducible human reward imaging phenotypes exhibit differential sensitivity to dopamine D2 receptor antagonism

Abstract Human reward processing varies along cue-centric and outcome-centric axes, but a reproducible mechanistic account of individual variation in incentive salience attribution has been lacking. Using fMRI across five cohorts (N-total=1,251; N1=890; N2=245; N3=34; N4=48; N5=3...

Charting Endocrine Progenitors Across Species and Organs

ABSTRACT Hormone‐producing cells in the pancreas and intestine regulate whole‐body metabolism and are dysregulated in obesity and diabetes. A deeper understanding of endocrine lineage formation (endocrinogenesis) in these organs is essential to elucidate the healthy state and dis...

On the blind spot: ethical conflicts of health care professionals in addressing opioid diversion - a template study protocol for multinational qualitative research

Abstract Background Opioid diversion—the unauthorized redirection of prescription opioids—is a growing global concern with significant public health implications. While diversion can occur at many points in the supply chain, instances involving healthcare professionals (HCPs) are...

A novel SUR1‐TMD0 interaction region contributes to glucose‐dependent inhibition of pancreatic K ATP channels by bupropion

Background and Purpose Pancreatic β‐cell ATP‐sensitive potassium (K ATP ) channels play a central role in glucose homeostasis by coupling cellular metabolism to insulin secretion. Although conventional K ATP channel inhibitors are effective insulin secretagogues, their clinical u...

The liver in diabetes: current state and future perspectives

Abstract Diabetes mellitus is strongly associated with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). For many years, MASLD has not been recognised as either a common pathophysiological feature of type 2 diabetes or a diabetes-related complication. This special...

Prospective analysis of pre-diagnostic untargeted plasma metabolomics and risk of triple-negative breast cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 10–15% of newly diagnosed breast cancer, and its aetiology is poorly understood compared to other breast cancer subtypes. We applied untargeted metabolomics to identify novel biological pathways associated with TNBC risk and poten...

Rab4b controls hepatic glucose production during fasting through glycophagy

Abstract Hepatic glucose production, essential for maintaining glycemia, is often altered in metabolic-associated fatty liver and glycogen storage diseases. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms that regulate the glucose production by hepatocyte is pivotal. Recent studies have...

Identification and phenotypic profiling of subgroups with distinct cognitive aging trajectories

Cognitive aging is shaped by genetic variation, environmental factors, and health-related conditions. Until now, it is largely unclear why some individuals maintain their cognitive function, and others show progressive cognitive decline. This study uncovered determinants of disti...