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Guess who else, besides the beta cells in the pancreas, produce insulin

Posted by Dr Sandy on in Diabetes | 2080 Views | Leave a response
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How to lower your insulin level if you’re suffering from hyperinsulinemia

fat cells produce insulin

Beta cells produce insulin and when beta cells FAIL, type 2 diabetes is diagnosed……….. Not so fast, fat cells also produce insulin, and this might be the actual problem.

When it comes to insulin production, the pancreas is the focus of EVERYONE’s attention.

Particularly when beta cells FAIL.

Now to be fair, the FAILURE is relative.

The little guys are still pumping out insulin, it’s just not enough to meet the extra-ordinary demand.

Insulin resistance

The “unrealistic” demand is sparked by widespread insulin resistance, which is a polite way of saying,  the movers and shakers in the body, ignore insulin’s advances.

Undaunted, the pancreas keeps churning out more and more insulin………..

This strategy works for a while.

Until, the beta cells CAN’T take the pressure.

Churning out insulin 24/7 is exhausting.

Why do cells become insulin resistant ?

At this stage, no one knows for sure, why insulin becomes the pariah.

It might have something to do with insulin’s pushy personality.  Oh dear !   Too much insulin is definitely rather off putting………………………… and results in  INSULIN RESISTANCE.

But, excess insulin should only happen at dinner.

Hyperinsulinemia

The trigger for beta cells to pump out insulin is primarily glucose.

And as long as your beta cells are strong and healthy, glucose levels only rise when you eat something.

But, in anyone who is metabolically challenged, insulin levels are high

MORNING, NOON and NIGHT

Night ?  Where does night time insulin come from ?

Insulin in the middle of the night

Most of us, don’t actually eat when we’re sleeping !    On paper at least, beta cells should get some relief from being the insulin pumping machine.

So why is it, that people with metabolic issues, wake up with insulin levels in the stratosphere ?

Could the insulin becoming from elsewhere ?

Only beta cells produce insulin

Any textbook will tell you, beta cells are the only cells that produce insulin.  But they’re not.

Recently a group of researchers based in the Netherlands rewrote the text book.  Beta cells are not the only source of insulin in the body.

They are by far and away the biggest source, but they’re not the only cells with this POWER.

The Dutch team found, fat cells are insulin producers.

Fat cells produce insulin

Using fancy molecular biology techniques, they screened several different kinds of fat cells, looking to see if the insulin gene was being expressed, and whether insulin was being produced.

It was……………

image showing fat cells producing insulin

Confocal image of visceral adipoctyes, showing insulin production. Copyright Bahram Sanjabi

This is an immunofluorescent confocal laser scanning image of human visceral fat cell. The enormous green blobs are the lipid droplets, in which fat is stored. The red bits, peeking through, are where an antibody which recognizes insulin has bound. This image demonstrates that insulin is being produced, by fat cells.

All mature fat cells produce insulin

When the team probed exactly which fat cells, could and couldn’t produce insulin, they found both, insulin was produced by

  • subcutaneous (fat cells located on the outer layers of your body) and
  • visceral fat (fat cells located deep inside your body .

But, baby fat cells, otherwise known as preadipocytes, were not insulin producers, no matter where they were located.

Interestingly enough………….

Insulin production by fat cells when exposed to glucose

Insulin levels in visceral adipocyte tissue, with and without glucose. Copyright Bahram Sanjabi et al

The fat cells made less insulin, not more, when they were exposed to glucose.

A little goes a long way

Now the actual amount of insulin being produced is tiny.

But, if you have a lot of fat cells, each producing a tiny amount of insulin, it adds up.  Enough to count ?

Maybe.

fat mass versus insulin levels

Graph showing how plasma insulin concentration correlates with body mass index. Copyright Bahram Sanjabi et al

When the researchers plotted insulin levels against BMI in 41 human subjects, ranging in weight from skinny to morbidly obese, they found a straight line.  Suggesting insulin production by fat cells impacts overall insulin levels.

Ouch !

Fat cells are bad

It’s probably not a big surprise – fat cells have a bad reputation, but up until now, the problem with fat cells has been more about insulin resistance, not insulin production.

It will take some time to figure out, just what fat cells are up to when they churn out insulin, but in the mean time…………..this research  reiterates the importance of

Work on reducing your fat mass.

It will help rein in insulin, literally, since you’ll produce a little less.

NOTE : Fat cells are not the only cells outside of the pancreas with insulin production capabilities – tummy cells and cells lining the small intestine are also insulin producers.

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Lipid droplets hypertrophy: a crucial determining factor in insulin regulation by adipocytes. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS (2016) 5 : 8816. Bahram Sanjabi, Monireh Dashty, Behiye Ozcan, Vishtaseb Akbarkhanzadeh, Mehran Rahimi, Manlio Vinciguerra, Felix van Rooij,  Saad Al-Lahham,  Fareeba Sheedfar,  Theo G. van Kooten,  C. Arnold Spek,  Ajda T. Rowshani,  Johannes van der Want,  Rene Klaassen,  Eric Sijbrands,  Maikel P. Peppelenbosch,  Farhad Rezaee. 

Further reading

insulin topping up a fat cell

The diabetes timeline doesn’t start with TOO MUCH FAT

The story of diabetes is always written like this…. you put on weight, become insulin resistant, then eventually diabetic. But, this diabetes timeline is WRONG.

beta cell not sleeping

Clock watching uncovers one reason why beta cells fail in diabetes

Pancreatic clocks tick better when spend time in the dark. Unfortunately, being IN THE DARK, doesn’t always happen, light at night is commonplace.

beta cells churning out insulin

Avoid gestational diabetes by throwing a roof raising party

To throw the roof raising party, you need lots of serotonin, inside the pancreas. To make serotonin, inside the pancreas, you need the raw ingredients ….

 

Want to discover more ways to create BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY ?

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Posted in Diabetes | Tagged adipocytes, beta cell, beta cell failure, beta cells, BMI, fat, fat cells, fat mass, hyperinsulinemia, insulin, insulin production, insulin resistance, pancreas, weight

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Located in Johannesburg, South Africa

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