Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Making fat cells immortal might seem like a bad idea to most people, but for a team of University of Iowa scientists it was the ideal way to study how the interaction between bacteria and fat cells might contribute to diabetes.
The connection between fat, bacteria, and diabetes is inflammation, which is the body's normal reaction to infection or injury. Inflammation is beneficial in small, controlled doses but can be extremely harmful when it persists and becomes chronic.
"The idea is that when fat cells (adipocytes) interact with environmental agents -- in this case, bacterial toxins -- they then trigger a chronic inflammatory process," says Patrick Schlievert, Ph.D., UI professor and head of microbiology and co-senior author of a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. "We know that chronic inflammation leads to insulin resistance, which can then lead to diabetes. So people are very interested in the underlying causes of chronic inflammation."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131030185153.htm
The connection between fat, bacteria, and diabetes is inflammation, which is the body's normal reaction to infection or injury. Inflammation is beneficial in small, controlled doses but can be extremely harmful when it persists and becomes chronic.
"The idea is that when fat cells (adipocytes) interact with environmental agents -- in this case, bacterial toxins -- they then trigger a chronic inflammatory process," says Patrick Schlievert, Ph.D., UI professor and head of microbiology and co-senior author of a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. "We know that chronic inflammation leads to insulin resistance, which can then lead to diabetes. So people are very interested in the underlying causes of chronic inflammation."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131030185153.htm