Mitochondrial damage causes people with type 2 diabetes to lose insulin-producing cells, a finding that could lead to new treatments, U.S. researchers say.

Mitochondria provide energy for cellular activity.
The researchers found that when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas can't respond to circulating insulin, it triggers a “molecular cascade” that damages the normal action of a certain molecular receptor on the surface of the mitochondria. The damaged mitochondria then begin to destroy adenosine triphosphate, the prime fuel for cellular activity. As a result, the beta cells die.
“Mitochondrial function is a very fundamental aspect of how beta cells produce insulin, and this research shows its direct relation with insulin signaling,” study co-author Dr. E. Dale Abel, chief of the endocrinology and metabolism division at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, said in a news release from the Joslin Diabetes Center.
The researchers plan to look for proteins that may offer potential targets for drug treatment to prevent this kind of beta cell death.