Male sex hormone testosterone may help treat diabetes, a new study has found.

The association of testosterone and diabetes has long been recognized by doctors, specifically the greater risk of diabetes present among those with low testosterone count.

Now, experts from different universities have discovered the role of testosterone in blood sugar regulation among men. They were able to particularly identify how the male sex hormone triggers the parts of the pancreas that produce insulin, which is the hormone that lets cells and tissues take in sugar from blood.

"We have found the cause – and a potential treatment pathway – for type 2 diabetes in testosterone-deficient men," says senior author Dr. Franck Mauvais-Jarvis.

Testosterone: Anti-Diabetic

Mauvais-Jarvis says their work shows that testosterone is an anti-diabetic agent in men. If experts can regulate its activity in the body and produce no side effects, this could pave a therapeutic pathway for patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

For the study, the team developed male mice subjects with pancreatic cells that lack a gateway for testosterone called androgen receptor. They fed the mice with Western food full of fat and sugar.

After the experiment, the researchers looked into how the mice would react to glucose. The findings showed that those without androgen receptor were not able to tolerate glucose because of low levels of insulin produced by the pancreatic cells. The mice in the control group with normal pancreatic cells, however, showed better response to glucose.

For more clarity, the researchers directly placed testosterone and glucose to human pancreatic cells that were treated with androgen receptor inhibitor as well as to pancreatic cells of mice that did not contain androgen receptors. Both showed lesser insulin generation than those which had androgen receptors.

Promising Treatments Ahead

The study signifies that testosterone amps up the pancreatic effects of the hormone, which is now being given to patients as a treatment for diabetes.

The research may help experts develop new treatments for type 2 diabetes in the large population of men with low testosterone because of reasons such as prostate cancer therapies and age.

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism on April 28.

Photo: Alisha Vargas | Flickr