Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The mechanisms of obesity increasing the susceptibility of type 2 diabetes

Why the majority of patients who suffer from obesity also more easy to get diabetes and chronic inflammation? As we all know insulin is a hormone to regulate carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that is characterized by high blood glucose in the context of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. From an article published on science, it figures out some parts of relevance between these two diseases.

In the article the researcher makes a contract test that when put on a high fat diet in mice, a secreted protein named Sfrp5 is decreased. This is the way how Sfrp5 works then you may know why obesity can increase the susceptibility of diabetes. First there is a group of proteins named Wnt, which are a family of secreted glycoproteins that signal through a cell surface receptor called frizzled (Fz). The Fz can stimulate the signaling pathway to stimulate guanosing triphosphatases (Rho A and Rac1), leading to activation of the JNK1. In short the Wnt activates JNK1, which triggered a proinflammatory response. Second in insulin target cell like fat cell, activated JNK1 can impair the activity of an insulin receptor substrate protein, leading to decreased insulin signaling and the development of insulin resistance. Then Sfrp5 can act as a decoy receptor that binds and sequester Wnt, thus preventing activation of Fz. In that case less JNK1 will be produced. Less JNK1 means less impairment of insulin receptor. Of course it will improve insulin sensitivity.

This observation can help the development of therapeutics, which could use Sfrp5 to treat obesity-related insulin resistance. From this article we also can know once you get a disease, other impairments will come along.

Posted by Minhui Dai

6 comments:

  1. While prevention of obesity should receive high priority, there is emerging evidence that treating obese subjects has short-term effects on the prevention of diabetes; improves glucose, lipid, and blood pressure parameters; and is likely to have beneficial effects on long-term health outcomes.

    Jean Fedna

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  2. So if I understood correctly, the article claims that treating obesity will actually stimulate problems with diabetes? well, this isn't good at all! I believe that society should come together to emphasize diet and exercise through government grants. it is such a serious disease that it is the #2 cause of preventable death in the United States. 60 million Americans, 20 years and older are obese and 9 million children and teens ages 6-19 are overweight. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of health conditions and diseases including: Breast cancer, Coronary heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.


    Cleopatra Duque

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  3. It seems like every new issue of Nature or Science has at least one article detailing a new pathway; new relationships between existing pathways; or a link between a pathway and a major disease. Some unacquainted with the importance of pathways have said that pathway publishing has become a "tiresome trend," in research--perhaps they'll change their mind after reading your article.

    While medicine has known a fair amount about the molecular side of diabetes, it's certainly interesting to understand the specific pathway involved. Hopefully this development brings us one step closer to curing this wide-spread, deadly disease.

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  4. I think we should be trying to establish healthy eating and exercising habits with people because if I understood this correctly is simply something that will treat only certain people. In most cases obesity is preventable and people need to be more cautions with their diets and more vigorous with their exercise.
    -Jessica Kusmirek

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  5. I think it is great that information that proves exactly how serious obesity is, in this case by linking it to another serious health issue, is emerging. Hopefully the clear threats that science has proven being obese poses will deter people from unhealthy lifestyles. On the other hand, information such as this could also lead to the production of an "easy way out" in the form of a drug, perhaps one that increases levels of Sfrp5. This could be a great thing if it is indeed successful at lowering levels of Type 2 Diabetes, but it could also just be another waste of time, money, and effort put towards making yet another pill associated with overweight solutions that will never be able to take the place of a healthy diet and exercise.

    Posted by Brianna Lee

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  6. Well I agree with all commends that healthy diet and exercise are the only way to eliminate obesity and relative disease. But it is hard to keep people away from high-fat and tasty foods. So finding effective way to avoid obesity and related diseases is till important. The pathway science is really hot now, and it is a kind of "tiresome" field. But I think controlling the sensitivity of reporter protein or activating a pathway is a good way to regulate biochemical reaction in body.

    Posted by Minhui Dai

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