Acting on insulin
Tuesday, 11 November, 2008
A PhD student from the Garvan Institute in Sydney has discovered a novel action for insulin, describing a new role in glucose uptake.
Freddy Yip and colleagues from the Garvan’s diabetes and obesity research program have found that a member of the myosin motor protein family, 1c, undergoes increased phosphorylation in response to insulin.
Myo1c is thought to play a role in delivering the glucose transporter GLUT4 to the plasma membrane in fat cells.
For people with type 2 diabetes, the team believes there may be blockages in the signal between insulin and Myo1c, perhaps leading to insulin resistance.
The research is published in the November 5 issue of Cell Metabolism [doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2008.09.011].
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