Latinos vulnerable to fatty pancreas.

• Position: Type 2 Diabetes

Latinos are more likely to store fat in the pancreas and are less able to compensate by excreting additional insulin, demonstrates a study published in Diabetes Care. The research is part of a focus by the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute, Los Angeles, Calif., to identify biological measures that could help predict which patients are likely to develop the disease.

"Prevention of diabetes is our goal," explains director Richard Bergman, lead author on the study. "Not all people who are overweight or obese and who have insulin resistance go on to develop diabetes. If we can determine who is most likely to develop diabetes and why, then we can make strides toward preventing it in those individuals."

The study compared white, black, and Latino participants--similarly overweight--who shared many of the same prediabetic symptoms. It found that Latinos stored fat in their pancreas, which is less able to produce adequate amounts of insulin as compared with white and black study participants. This may be why Latinos are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

In chronic obesity, the adipose tissue that is designed to...