Scientists study using tears to detect blood sugar levels

For people who need to check their blood sugar levels frequently, taking multiple finger-strokes a day is a painful process. Now, American researchers are studying ways to measure blood sugar with tears and hope to replace blood tests one day. University of Michigan researchers used 12 white rabbits for experiments. They found that the level of glucose in white rabbit tears is related to blood glucose levels. In theory, detecting glucose levels in tears can determine blood glucose levels.

The study writes that the amount of glucose in white rabbit tears is between one and one-thirtieth and one-thirtieth in blood. Therefore, researchers must make sensitive enough test strips to measure blood glucose levels with only a few tears. . The researchers said that white rabbit experiments show that there is a link between glucose levels in the tears and blood glucose levels, and then they will be further tested on other animals and then tested on healthy people and diabetics.

According to statistics from the American Diabetes Association, there are about 25.8 million people with diabetes in the United States, and about 7 million people have not been diagnosed. American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists George? Grumberg said diabetes patients have high levels of glucose in their blood, partly because the pancreas ceases to secrete insulin, and in part because the body cells are resistant to insulin and cannot control blood sugar levels.

Some people with diabetes need to check blood sugar levels frequently, "twice, three times, four times or even ten times a day, because blood sugar levels change quite a lot in one day." For doctors, accurate blood glucose test results are the most important basis for diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. So far, there is no way to replace blood tests.

Like researchers at the University of Michigan, researchers at Arizona State University and the Mayo Clinic are also working to overcome the pain of blood sugar from tears. Arizona State University biomedical engineer Jeffrey? Rabel said that their goal is to develop a blood glucose test strip that can be used to extract tears through contact with white eyes.

Rabel said that the idea of ​​measuring blood sugar with tears was born in 1937. Tears pose three major challenges for researchers: they evaporate, have low glucose levels, and low amounts. In addition, the researchers must also pay attention to the safety of the testing process, can not let the test paper to stimulate the eye. Grumberg also said that tear testing may never replace blood testing, because rabbit experiments show that the relationship between glucose and blood glucose in each rabbit's tears is not the same. Therefore, even if tear-testing blood sugar technology is applied to humans one day, Each user must also calibrate the meter first.