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What‘s Fat Got to Do With It?

Study Links Fat Cells with Insulin Resistance

May 1, 2001

Harvard Medical School

A protein in fat cells may cause insulin resistance, say researchers from Harvard Medical School.

The research, published in the February 8 issue of Nature, is another finding supporting the growing body of evidence linking fat in the body with diabetes.

The mysterious substance, a protein released into the body from fat cells, may cause other cells, such as those in muscles and organs needed to process sugar, to resist responding to insulin.

In a prepared statement, Barbara B. Kahn, MD, of Harvard Medical School, said, "This whole concept is extremely exciting in terms of the possibility of finding new drug targets for reducing insulin resistance, improving blood sugar control, or even decreasing the possibility of developing diabetes."

In an interview with Reuters Health, Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, said, "Specifically reducing the capacity of the fat cell to take up sugar in response to insulin leads to an increase in the production of the mysterious factor, which impairs insulin action in muscle and fat. This dramatically emphasizes the fat cell as a likely primary source of much of the abnormalities in insulin action seen throughout the body in type 2 diabetes."

Categories: Blood Sugar, Diabetes, Diabetes, Insulin, Insulin Resistance, Type 2 Issues

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