Saudis who are obese or overweight be warned: You have a high risk of contracting Type-2 diabetes, a new study says. The study that appears in the journal Cell Metabolism cites scientists as saying they may have uncovered a key reason why obese people have a raised risk of health complications such as type 2 diabetes. A team led by Matthew Watt, Associate Professor at Monash University in Sydney, discovered that fat cells release a protein called PEDF (pigment epithelium-derived factor) which triggers a chain of events and interactions that lead to development of Type-2 (T-2) diabetes. “When PEDF is released into the bloodstream, it causes the muscle and liver to become desensitised to insulin. The pancreas then produces more insulin to counteract these negative effects,” said Watt. “This insulin release causes the pancreas to become overworked, eventually slowing or stopping insulin release from the pancreas leading to T-2 dia betes. It appears that the more fat tissue a person has the less sensitive they become to insulin. Therefore a greater amount of insulin is required to maintain the body's regulation of blood-glucose,” Watt added. “Our research was able to show that increasing PEDF not only causes T-2 diabetes like complications but that blocking PEDF reverses these effects. The body again returned to being insulin-sensitive and therefore did not need excess insulin to remain regulated.” Watt said previous research had suggested that PEDF also protects against furring of the arteries and excessive blood vessel growth and helps keep the nervous system healthy. But he said new drugs could be at least five years away. The study was carried out in mice but there has been signs from other studies that higher levels of this protein found in overweight people with Type 2 diabetes could indicate that a similar process is occurring in humans.
