Since 2008, Dr. Willa Hsueh has served as the director of the Diabetes Research Center at Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston. Dr. Willa Hsueh has devoted a significant portion of her career to research, and she and her colleagues have recently explored the connection between inflammation in fat cells and diabetes.
Researchers once thought that fat cells only stored and released energy, but new evidence shows that they can trigger an inflammatory response in the body. People with type 2 diabetes have been found to have high levels of inflammatory chemicals in their fat cells. When a person sustains a cut on the skin, immune cells respond, triggering inflammation to signal that they are working on fighting infection. In a similar fashion, fat cells respond to high-calorie diets by issuing an immune response. Even though the fat cells are not under attack by harmful pathogens, they remain on high alert, causing a low-level, chronic inflammation that affects the way insulin is used by the body. If insulin resistance develops, more inflammation is triggered, creating a loop of insulin resistance and inflammation that will likely lead to type 2 diabetes. Dr. Hsueh and her team are working on treatments to block this inflammatory immune response in fat cells and possibly prevent type 2 diabetes.
Researchers once thought that fat cells only stored and released energy, but new evidence shows that they can trigger an inflammatory response in the body. People with type 2 diabetes have been found to have high levels of inflammatory chemicals in their fat cells. When a person sustains a cut on the skin, immune cells respond, triggering inflammation to signal that they are working on fighting infection. In a similar fashion, fat cells respond to high-calorie diets by issuing an immune response. Even though the fat cells are not under attack by harmful pathogens, they remain on high alert, causing a low-level, chronic inflammation that affects the way insulin is used by the body. If insulin resistance develops, more inflammation is triggered, creating a loop of insulin resistance and inflammation that will likely lead to type 2 diabetes. Dr. Hsueh and her team are working on treatments to block this inflammatory immune response in fat cells and possibly prevent type 2 diabetes.