Insulin resistance is a two-sided mechanism acting under opposite catabolic and anabolic conditions

Publication date: Available online 23 January 2016
Source:Medical Hypotheses
Author(s): P. Schwartsburd
The survival of multi-cellular organisms depends on the organism ability to maintain glucose homeostasis for time of low/high nutrient availability or high energy needs, and the ability to fight infections or stress. These effects are realized through the insulin controlled transport of blood glucose into the insulin-responsive cells such as muscle, fat and liver cells. Reduction in the ability of these cells to take glucose from the blood in response to normal circulating levels of insulin is known as insulin resistance (IR). Chronic IR is a key pathological feature of obesity, type 2 diabetes, sepsis and cancer cachexia, however temporal IR are widely met in fasting/ hibernation, pregnancy, anti-bacterial immunity, exercise and stress. Paradoxically, a certain part of the IR-cases is associated with catabolic metabolism, whereas the other is related to anabolic pathways. How can this paradoxical IR-response be explained? What is the metabolic basis of this IR variability and its physiological and pathological impacts? An answer to these questions might be achieved through the hypothesis in which IR is considered as a two-sided mechanism acting under opposite metabolic conditions (catabolism and anabolism) but with the common aim to sustain glucose homeostasis in a wide metabolic range. To test this hypothesis, I examined the main metabolic distinctions between the varied IR-cases and their dependence on the blood glucose concentration, level of the IR-threshold, and catabolic/anabolic activation. On the basis of the established interrelations, a simple model of IR-distribution has been developed. The model revealed the «U-type distribution» form with separation into two main IR-groups, each determined in the catabolic or anabolic conditions with one exception – type 2 diabetes and its paradoxical catabolic activation in anabolic conditions. The dual opposing (or complementary) role for the IR opens a new possibility for better understanding the cause and consequences of transition from adaptive IR-responses to its pathological forms.



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