Although numerous studies have shown that low-grade inflammation is linked to heart disease and diabetes, more recent studies have shown that inflammation plays a role in insulin resistance, a syndrome that leads to diabetes and heart disease and affects about one in four adults in the United States. But exactly how inflammation triggers insulin resistance is not fully understood. Now, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles, have found that variations in four genes that control inflammation are linked to insulin resistance, the precursor of diabetes, in Mexican Americans. Their findings, reported at the American Diabetes Association’s 65th Annual Scientific Sessions, may enable physicians to identify patients at the highest risk for developing diabetes and to design therapies that target these genes to prevent insulin resistance. “This study is the first to show that four inflammatory pathway genes – IL4, IL4R, IL6 and C5 – contribute to the development of insulin resistance,” said Jerome I. Rotter, M.D., director of research, Medical Genetics Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
