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Science 5 March 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5407, pp. 1423 - 1425
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5407.1423
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News of the Week

CELL BIOLOGY:
New Clues Found to Diabetes and Obesity

Dan Ferber

In work described on page 1544, researchers have identified a major new target for drugs aimed at treating type 2 diabetes--and possibly for anti-obesity drugs as well. The team made found that mice that have been genetically modified so that they can't make an enzyme called phosphotyrosine phosphatase IB (PTP-IB) showed increased sensitivity to insulin, an intriguing finding since type 2 diabetes is thought to be due to decreased sensitivity to the hormone. In addition, the animals proved resistant to the obesity usually induced by a high fat diet. It's currently unclear whether PTP-1B abnormalities play a causative role in diabetes or obesity, but even if they don't, it might be possible to treat the conditions with drugs that inhibit the enzyme's activity.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Hepatic VLDL Production in ob/ob Mice Is Not Stimulated by Massive De Novo Lipogenesis but Is Less Sensitive to the Suppressive Effects of Insulin.
C. H. Wiegman, R. H.J. Bandsma, M. Ouwens, F. H. van der Sluijs, R. Havinga, T. Boer, D.-J. Reijngoud, J. A. Romijn, and F. Kuipers (2003)
Diabetes 52, 1081-1089
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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