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The culprit, according to a recent study on mice published on Science, is resistin a fat-derived hormone that may promote insulin resistance, a condition in which the body fails to use insulin properly. Insulin is the substance that controls blood sugar in the body. When there isn't enough of it or it isn't used effectively, sugar builds up in the blood, starving the cells of the fuel they need for energy. Mice that don't have resistin are largely protected from insulin resistance, says Dr. Mitchell Lazar, director of the Penn Diabetes Center at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the study's authors. If resistin plays a similar role in humans, the authors say, this finding could lead to new ways to diagnose and treat people with type 2 diabetes. 'We might be able to really make an impact on insulin resistance and, therefore, on diabetes,' Lazar says. About 17 million Americans (American Diabetes Association) and 2 million Canadians (Health Canada) have type 2 diabetes. The disease frequently goes undiagnosed yet poses serious and life-threatening complications such as blindness, kidney disease, heart disease and stroke. Carrying extra body fat puts people at increased risk. About 80 percent of adults with type 2 diabetes are overweight, according to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse. Not surprisingly, the dramatic rise of type-2 diabetes cases in the last decade is accompanied by the rise of obesity among adults and children in North America. Almost two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese and about 15 percent of children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 are overweight, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites), based on the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In Canada, 38 % of women and 59.7 % of men are overweight according to 1999 Health Canada statistics. In 2001, Penn scientists first reported the existence of a hormone produced by fat cells that seemed to promote insulin resistance. They christened it 'resistin,' suggesting resistance to insulin. In the current study, the Penn team bred mice without resistin and compared their blood sugar regulation with mice possessing the hormone. Both groups of rodents gained weight on a high-fat diet, but glucose tolerance was significantly better in the resistin-free mice. Those lacking resistin also had lower fasting blood glucose levels than normal mice. Lazar believes resistin may have played an important role in evolution, helping to keep blood sugar normal during periods of fasting. With obesity, he says, resistin may get out of whack and contribute to difficulties handling blood glucose. Dr. Richard Hellman, medical director of the Heart of America Diabetes Research Foundation, says the study is interesting, particularly in light of a growing body of research examining the function of fat cells and fat metabolism. It is not clear though how much of the findings apply to humans. it doesn't say how important resistin is within the hierarchy of factors that could be contributing to insulin resistance. Dr. Lazar also explains that resistin in humans is expressed mainly by white blood cells, not fat cells as in mice. 'It may not be coming from fat cells but still may be an important link between obesity and insulin resistance in people,' he says.
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