The incidence of type 2 diabetes in Western society is on the rise, due largely to an increasing prevalence of obesity. Dysfunction of skeletal muscle mitochondria, the powerhouses of a cell, is associated with type 2 diabetes; however, whether this association is causal or consequential has not been understood. A new study by Jennifer Rieusset and her colleagues at INSERM U870, France, has shed light on this question and has provided evidence that alterations in mitochondrial function are the result, and not the cause, of insulin resistance (which usually precedes full-blown clinical type 2 diabetes) in mice.
