FGF-21 finds itself as a new therapy for type 2 diabetes
Members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family of proteins play many regulatory roles in several tissues. FGF-21 is a novel member of the FGF family, but its biological role was not known. In a study appearing online on May 2 in advance of the print publication of the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Alexei Kharitonenkov and colleagues from Lilly Research Laboratories show that FGF-21 may be a new therapeutic treatment for Diabetes Mellitus.
The researchers show that FGF-21 regulates glucose uptake in human fat cells. Moreover, therapeutic administration of FGF-21 decreased plasma glucose levels and triglycerides to near normal levels in multiple mouse models of type 2 diabetes. FGF-21, when overexpressed, protected animals from diet-induced obesity. These results define a functional role for FGF-21 in vivo and provide evidence that FGF-21 can lower glucose and triglyceride levels in diabetic animals.
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.the-jci.orgAll latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry
Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.
Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.
Newest articles
Novel catalyst for charge separation in photocatalytic water splitting
A research team led by Prof. JIANG Hailong, Prof. LUO Yi, and Prof. JIANG Jun from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) discovered a metal-organic framework (MOF)…
Finding a missing piece for neurodegenerative disease research
Research led by the University of Michigan has provided compelling evidence that could solve a fundamental mystery in the makeup of fibrils that play a role in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and…
BESSY II: New procedure for better thermoplastics
Thermoplastic blends, produced by a new process, have better resilience. Now, experiments at the IRIS beamline show, why: nanocrystalline layers increase their performance. Bio-based thermoplastics are produced from renewable organic…