Tuesday, September 23, 2008 12:00 AM

TUESDAY, Sept. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Nasally administered insulin won't protect children at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes from getting the illness, Finnish researchers say.

The study included 264 children with an increased genetic risk for type 1 diabetes who tested positive for two or more diabetes-associated autoantibodies in consecutive blood samples taken 3 month to 6 months apart.

The team gave nasally-administered insulin to 137 children for a median of 1.8 years, while 127 children received a placebo.

In the insulin group, 56 children eventually developed diabetes, compared to 53 children in the placebo group.

"Administration of nasal insulin did not delay or prevent type 1 diabetes in children with genetically conferred risk of disease, even when started soon after antibodies to the condition were detected," wrote Drs. Kirsti Nanto-Salonen and Olli Simell, of the University of Turku, and colleagues.

The study was published online and was expected to be in an upcoming print edition ofThe Lancet.

"As Nanto-Salonen and colleagues and others have shown, autoantibody seroconversion in the first 13 years of life may be a common prerequisite for development of type I diabetes, which would suggest that an early window of susceptibility exists, after which seroconversion and type I diabetes are much less likely," Dr. David B Dunger and Dr. John Todd, University of Cambridge, U.K., wrote in an accompanying editorial.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about type 1 diabetes.

SOURCE:The Lancet, news release, Sept. 23, 2008