By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD
Melbourne researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have found that inflammatory cells in fat tissue cause the body to become resistant to the effects of insulin – a common precursor to type II diabetes.
This finding will aid in drug development for insulin resistance in diabetes management where the body is unable to use the hormone to convert food into energy. Scientists say immune systems of overweight people reacted against fat tissue as though it were an infection, causing complications including insulin resistance. This, they said could explain the disease's prevalence among Aborigines, who the researchers said could have a very strong immune response to infections.
More than 50 per cent of Australian adults are overweight and there are an estimated 1.2 million people in Australia who suffer from type 2 diabetes. The study involved analysis of fat tissue of more than 100 Victorians who had undergone lap-band surgery for severe or morbid obesity over four years.