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Diabetes

Plasma membrane key to diet-induced insulin resistance

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 13, page 2 (2017)Cite this article

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Although a high-fat diet (HFD) is known to promote insulin resistance via chronic inflammation, the precise mechanisms leading to this pathological state have remained unclear. Now, in a new study published in Nature, Clay Semenkovich and colleagues show that endogenous fatty acid synthesis (de novo lipogenesis) in macrophages is required for the development of diet-induced insulin resistance as this process creates an environment at the plasma membrane conducive to cholesterol retention and the propagation of inflammatory signals.

Using a combination of genetic manipulation of mice, metabolic phenotyping similar to that used in humans with diabetes mellitus, and cell biology techniques directed at how the plasma membrane is organized into domains that propagate inflammatory signals, the researchers uncovered a specific mechanism underlying diet-induced inflammation.

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References

  1. Wei, X. et al. Fatty acid synthesis configures the plasma membrane for inflammation in diabetes. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature20117 (2016)

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  1. David Holmes
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Holmes, D. Plasma membrane key to diet-induced insulin resistance. Nat Rev Endocrinol 13, 2 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2016.190

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