The rarer type 1 occurs when the pancreas produces no insulin.
Many experts believe that increase is linked to the expanding American waistline.
A team of researchers found the hormone while investigating a class of anti-diabetic drugs called thiazolidinediones, or TZDs. The researchers found that, in mice, high levels of the hormone, which they named resistin, corresponded to greater insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic condition. If further research finds that a high level of resistin in humans is as predictive of diabetes as it is in mice, scientists will try to develop new drugs to block the hormone, says lead researcher Mitchell Lazar, director of the Penn Diabetes Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Lazar says dramatically high levels of the hormone were found in obese mice, especially those obese from overeating. Whether that will be the same in humans is being investigated, he says.