NEW HAVEN, Conn., Mar 4, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A U.S. study of mice sheds
light on the insulin resistance that can come from diets loaded with
high-fructose corn syrup, researchers said.
The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, showed mice on a
high-fructose diet were protected from insulin resistance when a gene known as
transcriptional coactivator PPARg coactivator-1b -- PGC-1b -- was "knocked down"
in the animals' liver and fat tissue. PGC-1b coactivates a number of
transcription factors that control the activity of other genes, including one
responsible for building fat in the liver.
"There has been a remarkable increase in consumption of high-fructose corn
syrup," Gerald Shulman of Yale University School of Medicine said in a
statement. "Fructose is much more readily metabolized to fat in the liver than
glucose is and in the process can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease."
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in turn leads to hepatic insulin resistance
and type 2 diabetes, Shulman said.
Metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes have both reached epidemic proportions
worldwide with the global adoption of the Westernized diet along with increased
consumption of fructose, the researchers said.
The study has "revealed the transcriptional coactivator PGC-1b as a missing link
between fructose intake and metabolic disorders," Carlos Hernandez and Jiandie
Lin of the University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, wrote in an
accompanying commentary.
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