Health & Medicine - Posted by George Foulsham-UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 16:14 - 7 Comments 
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(2 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5) Loading ...Fatty diet triggers diabetes onslaught
The beta cells of mice fed a high-fat diet could not sense and respond to blood glucose. The glucose transporters are green, insulin is red and DNA is blue. (Credit: UC Santa Barbara)
UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Diets with high levels of fat shut down a key enzyme and cause a series of molecular events responsible for the onset and severity of Type 2 diabetes.
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In studies that included mice and humans, researchers discovered a pathway to disease that is activated in pancreatic beta cells, and then leads to metabolic defects in other organs and tissues, including the liver, muscle, and adipose (fat), that when linked together, add up to diabetes.
“We were initially surprised to learn how much the pancreatic beta cell contributes to the onset and severity of diabetes,” says Jamey Marth, professor of nanomedicine, molecular biology and biochemsitry at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Pancreatic beta cells from a mouse on a standard diet. Glucose transporters in green, insulin in red, DNA in blue. (Credit: UC Santa Barbara)
“The observation that beta cell malfunction significantly contributes to multiple disease signs, including insulin resistance, was unexpected. We noted, however, that studies from other laboratories published over the past few decades had alluded to this possibility.”
In healthy people, pancreatic beta cells monitor the bloodstream for glucose using glucose transporters anchored in their cellular membranes. When blood glucose is high, such as after a meal, beta cells take in this additional glucose and respond by secreting insulin in a timed and measured response. In turn, insulin stimulates other cells in the body to take up glucose, a nutrient they need to produce energy.
In the newly discovered pathway, reported online in the journal Nature Medicine, high levels of fat were found to interfere with two key transcription factorsn—proteins that switch genes on and off.
These transcription factors, FOXA2 and HNF1A, are normally required for the production of an enzyme called GnT-4a glycosyltransferase that modifies proteins with a particular glycan (polysaccharide or sugar) structure.
Proper retention of glucose transporters in the cell membrane depends on this modification, but when FOXA2 and HNF1A aren’t working properly, GnT-4a’s function is greatly diminished.
When otherwise normal mice were fed a high-fat diet, the animals’ beta cells could not sense and respond to blood glucose. Preservation of GnT-4a function was able to block the onset of diabetes, even in obese animals. Diminished glucose sensing by beta cells was shown to be an important determinant of disease onset and severity.
“Now that we know more fully how states of over-nutrition can lead to Type 2 diabetes, we can see more clearly how to intervene,” Marth says. He and colleagues are now considering various methods to augment beta cell GnT-4a enzyme activity in humans, as a means to prevent and possibly cure Type 2 diabetes.
“The identification of the molecular players in this pathway to diabetes suggests new therapeutic targets and approaches towards developing an effective preventative or perhaps curative treatment,” Marth says.
“This may be accomplished by beta cell gene therapy or by drugs that interfere with this pathway in order to maintain normal beta cell function.”
In the United States, more than 24 million children and adults –– nearly eight percent of the population –– have diabetes. In adults, Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90 to 95 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.
Researchers from Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute collaborated on the study that was funded in part by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
More news from UC Santa Barbara: http://www.ucsb.edu/
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7 Comments
Angelo DePalma
Dr Tochukwu Okereke
This is a great deal of research research result, I will be interested in further studies. Gene therapy actually can work, the GnT-4a enzyme can be supplied chemotherapeautically, the gene that codes for the enzyme as well can treated to slice the erring purine and pyrimidine bases, but thing about it’s feasibility and send back reports to me.
John McMurtry
If the glucose transporter is interrupted by fats and insulin is not produced, why would this lead to type II diabetes which is insulin independent diabetes and not type I which is insulin dependent?
Dr Tochukwu Okereke
@John McMurtry, I support your take, the inability of the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin leads to type I not type II. The researchers should check their theory properly as to obtain more more comprehensive results so that accurate ways could be employed in the process of seeking a medical solution
luis pena
I agree with Mr DePalma fat intake has been all but proven to have virtually no effect on hypoglycemic index. If the high fat diet is in COMBINATION with carbohydrates the you will affect insulin levels but not because of the fat. After years of struggling with my weight and erroneously attempting to control it with a low fat diet i finally saw the light. I have lost weight, lowered by blood pressure and normalized tryglicerides with a high fat diet. This study has more holes than the swiss cheese I now enjoy eating.
Angelo DePalma
This topic is really not about science but about politics and research funding. Nobody will get another dime’s worth of grants for concluding that anything is good or healthful about dietary fat, particularly saturated fat. I’ve been hearing for decades that fat and meat are bad — bad in every way, not just for the diet but for the “planet.” Look at who espouses these ridiculous notions and you’ll understand why they cannot be true.
A raw food fast, aka “Juicing is the best way to treat any form of diabetes. Only you can change it, not any medication.
Why should glucose levels be high after a meal unless you’re eating a lot of junk, i.e. carbohydrates? What if, for example, you ate only fat, or fat and protein? Where would the glucose enter the picture? Unless you eat starches excessively you’ll NEVER have high blood glucose, even post-prandial.
Every single study linking fat intake to diabetes has been debunked. The real culprit in the diabetes epidemic is not fat but junk food, particularly meals high in nutrition-less starches.
My mother-in-law and brother are both the pictures of health. They’re thin as rails, they exercise obsessively, and they eat “healthy” (meaning mostly starch — they’re starch-a-holics). Fruits, bread, pasta. Both are borderline diabetics. My wife, who is a little chunky but listens to my advice, has cut back on starches and her glucose is fine, even immediately “after a meal.”