Osteopontin is Why Obesity Lead to Diabetes

Filed in archive Developments , Research on September 12, 2007

At least according to the new data generated in mice by a team from University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington.

Obesity has always been linked to insulin resistance, which most often lead to type 2 diabetes.




According to this mice study, although mice lacking osteopontin became obese when fed a high-fat diet, they did not become as insulin resistant as normal mice fed the same diet.

[Osteopontin is an extracellular matrix protein and proinflammatory cytokine that is required for macrophage infiltration of a tissue during an immune response.]

This decrease in insulin resistance was associated with decreased accumulation of macrophages in the adipose tissue leading the authors to conclude that osteopontin has a key role in linking obesity to the development of insulin resistance in mice.

I wonder when all these will be translated into humans? Let's wait and see...

Findings have been reported (a pdf file) in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Source: University of Kentucky