What does diabetes cause a resistance to?
Diabetes in cats
The signs of diabetes mellitus are caused by a persistently high blood glucose concentration, which may be caused by either insufficient insulin, or by a lack of response to insulin. Most cats have a type of diabetes mellitus similar to human diabetes mellitus type 2, with β-cell dysfunction and insulin resistance. Factors which contribute to insulin resistance include obesity and endocrine diseases such as acromegaly. Acromegaly affects 20–30% of diabetic cats; it can be diagnosed by measuring the concentration of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the blood.
Disposition index
Disposition index (DI) is the product of insulin sensitivity times the amount of insulin secreted in response to blood glucose levels. Insulin resistant individuals can maintain normal responses to blood glucose due to the fact that higher levels of insulin are secreted as long as the beta cells of the pancreas are able to increase their output of insulin to compensate for the insulin resistance. Loss of function of the beta cells, reducing their capacity to compensate for insulin resistance, results in a lower disposition index.