Women retain insulin sensitivity better than men
It's all because of a protein, says study
2015-03-17
(Press-News.org) Hamilton, ON (March 17, 2015) - It's long been known that obese men are more likely to develop type two diabetes than obese women, but researchers at McMaster University have discovered it may be related to a difference between the sexes in the activity of a protein in the muscle.
As people become overweight, their skeletal muscle develops insulin resistance that can lead to type two diabetes. In a paper published by Scientific Reports today, the research team found the activity of this protein, called PTEN (for Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10), is different between men and women.
When PTEN is active, it prevents insulin from signaling properly in muscle, which reduces the amount of sugar a muscle takes. This 'muscle insulin resistance' increases the chance of developing type two diabetes.
"In our study, women's muscle appeared more efficient in neutralizing this protein, and this allows insulin to work better to move sugar from circulation to muscle," said lead author Dr. M. Constantine Samaan, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and pediatric endocrinologist at the McMaster Children's Hospital
"This protein is one explanation of why women are relatively protected from type two diabetes, despite having more body fat content compared to men at a given weight," said Samaan, adding that this is important as it provides a therapeutic target to improve muscle responses to insulin to treat and prevent diabetes. The team is now working on finding out how PTEN is regulated in different cells.
INFORMATION:
The research was funded by the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation and Hamilton Health Sciences.
Editors: The paper, entitled "Sex differences in skeletal muscle Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) levels: A cross-sectional study" is freely available online at http://www.nature.com/scientificreports.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-03-17
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Young, inexperienced drivers have always gotten into more automobile accidents, but if you add in a lot of distractions, it's a recipe for disaster - and a new Pacific Northwest research program is learning more about these risks while identifying approaches that may help reduce them.
Distractions have been an issue since the age of the Model T, whether a driver was eating a sandwich or talking to a passenger. But the advent of cell phones, text messaging and heavy urban traffic has taken those distractions to a historic level, say researchers, who ...
2015-03-17
The whirling, winged seeds of today's conifers are an engineering wonder and, as University of California, Berkeley, scientists show, a result of about 270 million years of evolution by trees experimenting with the best way to disperse their seeds.
The first conifer species that produced seeds that whirl when they fall used a variety of single- and double-winged designs. Whirling, or helicoptering, keeps a seed aloft longer, increasing the chance that a gust of wind will carry a seed to a clearing where it can sprout and grow unimpeded by competitors
"Winged seeds may ...
2015-03-17
The honeycomb structure of pristine graphene is beautiful, but Northwestern University scientists, together with collaborators from five other institutions, have discovered that if the graphene naturally has a few tiny holes in it, you have a proton-selective membrane that could lead to improved fuel cells.
A major challenge in fuel cell technology is efficiently separating protons from hydrogen. In a study of single-layer graphene and water, the Northwestern researchers found that slightly imperfect graphene shuttles protons -- and only protons -- from one side of the ...
2015-03-17
An atomically thin membrane with microscopically small holes may prove to be the basis for future hydrogen fuel cells, water filtering and desalination membranes, according to a group of 15 theorists and experimentalists, including three theoretical researchers from Penn State.
The team, led by Franz Geiger of Northwestern University, tested the possibility of using graphene, the robust single atomic layer carbon, as a separation membrane in water and found that naturally occurring defects, essentially a few missing carbon atoms, allowed hydrogen protons to cross the ...
2015-03-17
An analysis of genetic and lifestyle data from 10 large epidemiologic studies confirmed that regular use of aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) appears to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in most individuals. The study being published in the March 17 issue of JAMA found that a few individuals with rare genetic variants do not share this benefit. The study authors note, however, that additional questions need to be answered before preventive treatment with these medications can be recommended for anyone.
"Previous studies, including randomized ...
2015-03-17
Among approximately 19,000 individuals, the use of aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) was associated with an overall lower risk of colorectal cancer, although this association differed according to certain genetic variations, according to a study in the March 17 issue of JAMA.
Considerable evidence demonstrates that use of aspirin and other NSAIDs is associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer. However, the mechanisms behind this association are not well understood. Routine use of aspirin, NSAIDs, or both for prevention of cancer is not currently ...
2015-03-17
In a study in which pathologists provided diagnostic interpretation of breast biopsy slides, overall agreement between the individual pathologists' interpretations and that of an expert consensus panel was 75 percent, with the highest level of concordance for invasive breast cancer and lower levels of concordance for ductal carcinoma in situ and atypical hyperplasia, according to a study in the March 17 issue of JAMA.
Approximately 1.6 million women in the United States have breast biopsies each year. The accuracy of pathologists' diagnoses is an important and inadequately ...
2015-03-17
Older adults who had spine imaging within 6 weeks of a new primary care visit for back pain had pain and disability over the following year that was not different from similar patients who did not undergo early imaging, according to a study in the March 17 issue of JAMA.
When to image older adults with back pain remains controversial. Many guidelines recommend that older adults undergo early imaging because of the higher prevalence of serious underlying conditions. However, there is not strong evidence to support this recommendation. Adverse consequences of early imaging ...
2015-03-17
An additional 18 months of dual antiplatelet therapy among patients who received a bare metal coronary stent did not result in significant differences in rates of stent thrombosis (formation of a blood clot), major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events, or moderate or severe bleeding, compared to patients who received placebo, according to a study in the March 17 issue of JAMA. The authors note that limitations in sample size may make definitive conclusions regarding these findings difficult.
Current clinical practice guidelines recommend a minimum of only 1 month ...
2015-03-17
An examination of the reporting of noninferiority clinical trials raises questions about the adequacy of their registration and results reporting within publicly accessible trial registries, according to a study in the March 17 issue of JAMA.
Noninferiority clinical trials are designed to determine whether an intervention is not inferior to a comparator by more than a prespecified difference (known as the noninferiority margin). Selection of an appropriate margin is fundamental to noninferiority trial validity, yet a point of frequent ambiguity. Given the increasing ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Women retain insulin sensitivity better than men
It's all because of a protein, says study
