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Emerging paradigms for understanding fatness and diabetes risk
Steven R Smith1, Eric Ravussin
1Pennington Biomedical Research Center, 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70808-4124, USA. smithsr@pbrc.edu
Current Diabetes Reports
|March 20, 2003
Summary
Increasing body fat (adiposity) is linked to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes risk. New research challenges the traditional portal/visceral hypothesis, proposing alternative explanations for this connection.
Area of Science:
- Metabolic disease
- Endocrinology
- Obesity research
Background:
- Increasing adiposity is strongly correlated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
- The prevailing portal/visceral hypothesis links visceral fat to impaired insulin action via free fatty acid flux.
- Recent findings challenge the completeness of the portal/visceral hypothesis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the established relationship between adiposity and metabolic diseases.
- To critically evaluate the portal/visceral hypothesis in light of current evidence.
- To introduce and discuss emerging paradigms that may better explain the adiposity-disease link.
Main Methods:
- Review and synthesis of existing scientific literature.
- Critical analysis of data supporting and refuting the portal/visceral hypothesis.
- Conceptual development of alternative explanatory models.
Main Results:
- The portal/visceral hypothesis, while influential, does not fully account for all observed data.
- Evidence suggests limitations in explaining the comprehensive link between adiposity and disease.
- New theoretical frameworks are emerging to address these discrepancies.
Conclusions:
- The traditional understanding of how adiposity drives insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes requires re-evaluation.
- Emerging paradigms offer potentially more robust explanations for the metabolic consequences of increased adiposity.
- Further research is needed to validate these new models and refine our understanding of obesity-related diseases.