Commentary: Mitochondrial DNA damage and loss in diabetes.

This commentary discusses damage and loss of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in type 2 diabetes mellitus from both the clinical and experimental perspectives. Increasingly, an array of studies in experimental models and patients suggests that the cellular stresses of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes damage mtDNA, leading to loss of mitochondrial genetic content. As such, mtDNA is emerging as both a valuable monitoring tool and translational preventive target for metabolic disease.