Young People Prone To Type 2 Diabetes Exhibit Alterations In Mitochondrial Activity

Researchers at Yale have found that decreased activity in muscle mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell, may be a major factor in the development of type 2 diabetes in young, lean offspring of parents with the disease. They demonstrated a potential mechanism for the accumulation of fat in muscle cells of young, lean, insulin-resistant children of parents with type 2 diabetes by comparing them with insulin-sensitive control subjects matched for age, weight, height and activity.