Linking mitochondrial function to diabetes mellitus: an animal's tale

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common genetic diseases that afflicts humans. It is not a single disease but a collection of diseases having in common an abnormal glucose-insulin relationship and a dysfunctional regulation of glucose homeostasis. Of interest is the diabetic state that results when the mitochondrial genome mutates. Epidemiological studies have shown this to occur in humans. Detailed metabolic studies that are impossible to conduct in humans have been carried out in the BHE/Cdb rat. This rat has a mutated mitochondrial ATPase 6 gene. Strategies to ameliorate the consequences of this mutation have been explored and some of the mechanisms for the transcription and translation of the mitochondrial gene product have been elucidated.