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Published Online December 16, 2004
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1106933

Perspectives

Submitted on November 15, 2004
Accepted on December 10, 2004

Visfatin: A New Adipokine

Christopher Hug 1 and Harvey F. Lodish 2*

1 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Division of Respiratory Disease, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
2 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Harvey F. Lodish , E-mail: lodish{at}wi.mit.edu

Too much abdominal (visceral) fat increases an individual's risk of developing insulin resistance and other metabolic disorders. In a Perspective, Hug and Lodish discuss the unexpected finding that blood levels of a hormone produced by visceral fat, called visfatin, correlate with obesity (Fukuhara et al.). Surprisingly, visfatin has beneficial, insulin-like activity and is able to bind to the insulin receptor, lowering blood glucose levels. The implications of this finding for diabetes research and therapy are discussed by the Perspective authors.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)