A study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has shown that a protein found in fat cells is a newly discovered cause of insulin resistance, establishing a previously unidentified molecular link between obesity and type 2 diabetes and offering a potential new target for the development of drugs to treat diabetes. The findings appear in the July 21, 2005, issue of the journal Nature. According to senior author Barbara B. Kahn, MD, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at BIDMC, these findings in both mice and humans represent the first evidence that elevated levels of retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) play a key role in the development of insulin resistance, a primary risk factor for diabetes.
