Patients with fulminant type 1 diabetes almost completely lack C-peptide even soon after the onset of the disease, and the deficiency continues for the rest of their life. Thus, fulminant type 1 diabetes could serve as a good model of nature to explore the physiological role of C-peptide. For example, patients with fulminant type 1 diabetes have diabetic chronic complications more frequently than those with classical autoimmune type 1 diabetes 5 years after the onset of diabetes, and the higher prevalence could be partly attributable to the complete lack of C-peptide in fulminant type 1 diabetes.
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