Research Grant

Institution:

University of Cambridge

Recipient:

Dr Aviva Tolkovsky

Project:

Mechanisms of Schwann cell dysfunction under hyperglycaemia and in a mouse model of diabetic neuropathy.

Summary:

Diabetic neuropathy develops in 50% of diabetic patients. It is characterised by debilitating pain or loss of sensation, and can lead to gangrenous foot infections and amputation.

There are no treatments for the neuropathic state. Schwann cells are crucially involved in supporting the neurons affected in diabetic neuropathy but little is known about why their responses go awry in the disease process.

We have found that hyperglycaemia (high glucose concentrations commonly found in diabetes, especially when poorly controlled) profoundly inhibits the ability of Schwann cells to divide after nerve injury and thus repopulate regenerating nerve axons in culture.

This proposal aims to reveal the molecules that mediate this loss of function by studying the cells in culture and in the context of a mouse model of diabetic neuropathy.

Our study should enable better treatments to be developed to treat this incapacitating and ill-understood neuropathy.

Amount:

£29,954