Joseph Larner's personal odyssey: search for the cause and cure of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Over the last five decades, Joseph Larner has tirelessly pursued scientific studies of the mechanism of insulin action, which are now providing new insight into the cause, diagnosis, and cure of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Larner demonstrated that D-chiro-inositol (D-CI) is virtually absent in the urine of patients with NIDDM. Consequently, he suggested that the insulin resistance seen in such patients is related to the absence of one of the mediators of insulin action containing D-CI. Moreover, Larner demonstrated that this D-CI deficiency and insulin resistance could be corrected by the administration of D-CI to experimental diabetic and insulin-resistant animals. From this pioneering research, the potential for therapy using D-CI in NIDDM is evident and must be evaluated expeditiously.