Study uncovers connection between high-fat diet and diabetes

Study uncovers connection between high-fat diet and diabetes

Scientists have come up with an explanation as to how a fatty diet leads to diabetes, a disorder that is primarily related to blood sugar levels.

In the United States alone, almost two million people suffer from Diabetes. Type 2 diabetes, the more common kind, has been associated with obesity. It is believed that obese people are 80 times more susceptible to Type 2 diabetes. The question how obesity is connected to diabetes has now been answered by the researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which glucose level in the blood increases due to decreased production of the hormone Insulin which regulates blood glucose levels. According to the study published in the Journal Cell, high-fat diet inhibits the secretion of the enzyme that is important for the production of insulin.

The San Diego team conducted an experiment on laboratory mice; they fed them with high-fat diet. It was observed that the high-fat diet suppressed the activity of a gene that triggers the production of enzyme glycosyltransferase enzyme (GnT-4a). In the absence of sufficient amounts of GnT-4a, the beta cells of the pancreas fail to secrete enough insulin leading thereby, to an increase in the blood sugar level.

These results, if applied to man, can provide a key to the prevention and cure of the disorder. “If our findings can be applied to humans, they should give us important insights into how type 2 diabetes may be prevented and treated,” said Dr Jamey Marth, a member of the research team. “If you could somehow stimulate production of this enzyme, you might be able to render animals, and perhaps humans, resistant to high-fat diet-induced diabetes.”

Further research, however, is needed to apply the findings to human beings.