What Anatomy and physiology of diabetes?
Diabetes is a system wide disease, but the etiology of Type I (insulin dependent diabetes) is due to an autoimmune attack on the Beta-cells in endocrine pancreas that produce insulin. As the number of Beta cells decreases the amount of insulin secreted by the pancreas is no longer sufficient to drive glucose uptake in the muscle and liver. The glucose accumulates in the blood until it reaches a concentration that is greater than what the kidneys can recover. The high levels of circulating glucose is associated with permanent damage to small blood vessels, damage to the retina and kidney failure.
