Diabetes mellitus supplementation trials

The European Health Food Manufacturers Federation restricts over-the-counter supplements to 500 mg per day (Shrimpton, 1997). Where niacin is being used to treat clinically significant hyperlipidemia, and in trials for the prevention of type I diabetes mellitus, a tentative upper limit has been set at 3 g per day (Knip et al., 2000). 

Scroggie, D.A. Albright, A. Harris, M.D. The effect of glucosamine-chondroitin supplementation on glycosylated hemoglobin levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus a placebo-controlled, double-blindM, randomized clinical trial. Arch. Intern. Med. 2003,163 (13), 1587-1590. 

We also checked whether CD 16 2 was formed in humans in vivo. In a pilot trial where subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus were supplemented with 6 g/day of a CLA mixture, we detected CD 16 2 from both isomers, and again CD 16 2 from rl0,fl2 was more abundant reflecting the data obtained in vitro with skin fibroblasts (2) and in vivo in rats (manuscript in preparation). It appears therefore that both isomers are partially P-oxidized in peroxisomes in both experimental animals and humans, in vivo and in vitro. More studies are needed to find out whether the metabolism of CLA is directly linked to its activity as a ligand of PPAR a. It has actually been found that CLA is able to upregulate acyl CoA oxidase, the key enzyme of peroxisomal P oxidation (8). If this link is definitively proven, CD 16 2 could be used as a marker of PPAR a activation. 

MILMAN, U., BLUM, S., SHAPIRA, C., ARONSON, D., MILLER-LOTAN, R., ANBINDER, Y., ALSHIEK, J., BENNETT, L., KOSTENKO, M., LANDAU, M., KEIDAR, S., LEVY, Y, KHEMLIN, A., RADAN, A. LEVY, A. P. 2008. Vitamin E supplementation reduces cardiovascular events in a subgroup of middle-aged individuals with both type 2 diabetes mellitus and the haptoglobin 2-2 genotype A prospective double-blinded clinical trial. Arterioscler Thromb Vase Biol, 28, 341-7. 

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