Subject collection: Metabolic Disorders
- Targeting ulcerative colitis by suppressing glucose uptake with ritonavir
Summary: Insights into immuno-metabolism open up new avenues for therapeutic intervention. The study presented here suggests that inhibition of glucose suppresses inflammation in a mouse model of ulcerative colitis.
- A novel mutation in the NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1 alpha subcomplex 4 (Ndufa4) gene links mitochondrial dysfunction to the development of diabetes in a rodent model
Summary: Here, we report, for the first time, a major inherited mutation in a diabetes-prone animal model that adversely affects mitochondrial function and leads, through oxidative stress, to the development of diet-induced diabetes.
- One month of hyperglycemia alters spectral responses of the zebrafish photopic electroretinogram
Summary: Zebrafish can be used to examine diabetic complications, including vision loss. Here, in zebrafish, we show that prolonged (4 week) hyperglycemia causes an inflammatory response associated with functional deficits localized to specific cone types.
- A nonalcoholic fatty liver disease model in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes, created by endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced steatosis
Summary: Our study demonstrates expanded use of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes for molecular studies and drug screening, to evaluate new therapeutics with an antisteatotic mechanism of action for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
- Independent effects of dietary fat and sucrose content on chondrocyte metabolism and osteoarthritis pathology in mice
Summary: The contribution of metabolic factors to obesity-associated knee osteoarthritis is uncertain. Here, we show how dietary fat and sucrose independently alter cartilage metabolic enzymes and osteoarthritis pathophysiology in mice.
- Idebenone and coenzyme Q10 are novel PPARα/γ ligands, with potential for treatment of fatty liver diseases
Summary: A zebrafish screen identifies a novel PPARα/γ ligand, idebenone, with potential for treatment of fatty liver diseases, as seen by testing it in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes.
- Pgc-1α repression and high-fat diet induce age-related macular degeneration-like phenotypes in mice
Summary: A new mouse model has been established that exhibits characteristics of human age-related macular degeneration; the model will facilitate further studies of AMD disease mechanisms.
- Inhibition of galectin-3 ameliorates the consequences of cardiac lipotoxicity in a rat model of diet-induced obesity
Summary: Inhibition of Gal-3 activity reduced the excessive cardiac accumulation of lipids in rats fed a high fat diet. This was accompanied by the amelioration of mitochondria damage observed in obese rats.
- Evaluation of human dermal fibroblasts directly reprogrammed to adipocyte-like cells as a metabolic disease model
Summary: Human dermal fibroblasts can be reprogrammed efficiently to adipocyte-like cells that have utility for modelling some aspects of human monogenic metabolic disease.
- A Drosophila model of insulin resistance associated with the human TRIB3 Q/R polymorphism
Summary: The insulin signaling inhibitor tribbles 3 (TRIB3) variant associated with Type II diabetes has parallel effects in a fly model system on Tribbles-regulated insulin signaling, growth and Akt activation.