GLUT4 (glucose transporter 4) plays important roles in glucose homoeostasis in vivo. GLUT4 expression and function are diminished in diabetic human and animal subjects. The goal of the present study is to develop a cell-based assay for identifying negative regulators of GLUT4 translocation as potential targets for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Traditional GLUT4 translocation assays performe...

Massive young stellar objects (YSOs), like low-mass YSOs, appear to be surrounded by optically thick envelopes and/or disks and have regions, often bipolar, that are seen in polarized scattered light at near-infrared wavelengths. We are using the 0.2 spatial resolution of NICMOS on Hubble Space Telescope to examine the structure of the disks and outflow regions of massive YSOs in star-forming r...

BACKGROUND Low adiponectin, a well-recognized antidiabetic adipokine, has been associated with obesity-related inflammation, oxidative stress and insulin resistance. Globular adiponectin is an important regulator of the interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK)/NFκB pathway in monocytes of obese subjects. It protects against inflammation and oxidative stress by inducing IRAK3. microRNA (m...

Type 2 diabetes is a global disease which affects an increasing number of people every year. At the heart of the disease lies insulin resistance in the target tissues, primarily fat and muscle. The insulin resistance is caused by the failure of a complex signalling network, and several mechanistic hypotheses for this failure have been proposed. Herein, we evaluate a hypothesis that revolves aro...

BACKGROUND Common genetic variants in the insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1) gene have been recently associated with insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. We examined whether the best-associated variant modifies the long-term changes in insulin resistance and body weight in response to weight-loss diets in Preventing Overweight Using Novel Dietary Strategies (POUNDS LOST) trial. METHODS A...

The prevalence of type II diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate due to the western world lifestyle. Type II diabetes is characterized by an insulin resistance distinguished by impaired glucose uptake in adipose and muscle tissues. The molecular mechanisms behind the insulin recistance and also the knowledge considering normal insulin signalling in fat cells, especially in humans, are still...

BACKGROUND Heart failure is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA and is closely associated with diabetes mellitus. The molecular link between diabetes mellitus and heart failure is incompletely understood. We recently demonstrated that insulin receptor substrates 1, 2 (IRS1, 2) are key components of insulin signaling and loss of IRS1 and IRS2 mediates insulin resistance, result...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies have suggested that noise exposure may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and experimental studies have demonstrated that noise exposure can induce insulin resistance in rodents. The aim of the present study was to explore noise-induced processes underlying impaired insulin sensitivity in mice. METHODS Male ICR mice were randomly divided i...

PURPOSE Insulin/insulin receptor (INSR) signaling plays diverse roles in the central nervous system, including regulation of blood glucose, synaptic plasticity, dendritic growth, modulation of electrophysiological activity, proliferation of astrocytes and neuronal apoptosis. Interestingly, many of these and/or related processes represent biological mechanisms associated with temporal lobe epile...

Significant advances in understanding aging have been achieved through studying model organisms with extended healthy lifespans. Employing 1H NMR spectroscopy, we characterized the plasma metabolic phenotype (metabotype) of three long-lived murine models: 30% dietary restricted (DR), insulin receptor substrate 1 null (Irs1-/-), and Ames dwarf (Prop1df/df). A panel of metabolic differences were ...