Request for Funding

Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2001

Mentor: J. Denis McGarry, Ph.D.

Department: Internal Medicine

Room number: F5-602

Mail Code: 9135

Phone number: (214) 648-3484

E-mail: denis.mcgarry@utsouthwestern.edu

Project title: Studies on the mechanism by which leptin causes dissipation of body fat.

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): Not applicable

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 0454-00-02-1

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects) Animal-based research

Brief Description of Project:

One of the projects ongoing in this laboratory has to do with the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the development of insulin resistance, a hallmark feature of obesity/Type 2 diabetes syndromes. We have suggested that this abnormality might stem from a defect in leptin signaling which, in turn, reduces the capacity of tissues to oxidize fatty acids, producing a build up of fat within the muscle and other cells. Evidence is growing that this ectopic accumulation of fat interferes with insulin-mediated glucose uptake in muscle and with insulin-mediated suppression of hepatic glucose output. Conversely, treatment of normal animals with leptin causes depletion of fat from all body sites and a marked increase in whole body insulin sensitivity. We speculate that leptin accomplishes these remarkable events by causing derepression of CPT I and partial uncoupling of oxidation phosphorylation in key tissues, with the result that fat oxidation is enhanced. We wish to test this hypothesis.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Numerous

Return to UT Southwestern Homepage

Return to Student Research Projects Index