“Good Fat” Protects Against Diabetes and Obesity in Humans

In order to combat the long-term exposure to the cold environment, our body stimulates the growth of brown adipocyte tissue (BAT), also known as “Good Fat”. BAT is a beneficial type of fat that uptakes glucose from bloodstream and burns this carbohydrates to generate heat. Recent research shows that our body benefits from glucose metabolism of BAT and protects us against Type-2 Diabetes and obesity.

Glucose uptake induced by Insulin has been well studied for many decades. However, the alternative mechanism of glucose uptake by other receptors still remains unclear. Published in November 2014 issue of Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), Jessica M. Olsen and colleagues identified a new signaling pathway that stimulates glucose uptake through the adrenoceptor in BAT. This study shows that the activation of beta3-adrenoceptor increases the level of intracellular cAMP and leads to increased de novo synthesis of GLUT1 and mTORC2 phosphorylation. The newly synthesized GLUT1 is then translocated to the plasma membrane and increase glucose uptake from blood. More importantly, the effect of beta3-adrenoceptor on mTOR complex 2 is independent of the classical insulin-phosphoinositide 3-kinase–Akt pathway. This finding potentially solves the problem of high blood sugar in patients with Type-2 Diabetes and might work as an effective weight loss therapy as well.

arigo has antibody Duos/Panels which could be used to investigate the glucose uptake through insulin or beta adrenoceptor dependent pathway. The Glucose Uptake (Insulin-dependent pathway) Panel (ARG30151) which contains IRS-1 pSer-636 antibody, Akt pSer-473 antibody and GLUT4 antibody can be used for the identification of the classical insulin dependent pathway. The Glucose Uptake (Adrenoceptor- dependent pathway) Panel (ARG30152) which contains mTOR pSer-2448 antibody, Rictor antibody and GLUT1 antibody could serve as markers for the beta3-adrenoceptor dependent pathway activation. The White / Brown Fat Cell Marker Antibody Duo (ARG30137) which contains BAT marker UCP-1 and the white adipocyte tissue marker Adiponectin are also helpful for the identification of different type fat tissues in human body. arigo also has the Insulin ELISA kit (ARG80655, ARG80488) which is the useful tool for the detection of Type-2 Diabetes.