Deciphering the molecular basis of SM regulation of exocytosis

糖尿病、肥胖、心脏病和缺乏体育锻炼是西方社会主要且日益严重的健康问题。这些问题都与胰岛素抵抗有关，或者加剧了胰岛素抵抗。当正常水平的胰岛素不足以清除血液中的葡萄糖时，就会发生胰岛素抵抗。在正常情况下，胰岛素通过刺激葡萄糖转运蛋白从细胞内部到细胞表面的运动来调节肌肉和脂肪细胞对葡萄糖的摄取。这种蛋白质的运输在胰岛素抵抗中被破坏了。这项研究的目的是跟进我们在这个系统上令人兴奋的初步结果，以阐明调节葡萄糖转运蛋白运输的分子过程。我们的研究结果将有助于更好地理解胰岛素刺激的葡萄糖转运，也可能揭示调节神经传递的相关细胞分泌系统的细节。我们的希望是，通过在分子水平上了解细胞如何调节分泌，我们可以在未来开发治疗方法来对抗当今许多主要的健康问题。

Diabetes, obesity, heart disease and physical inactivity are major and escalating health problems within western societies. These problems are all linked to, or aggravate, the condition known as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance occurs when normal levels of insulin are insufficient to remove glucose from the blood. In the normal situation, insulin regulates glucose uptake into muscle and fat cells by stimulating the movement of a glucose transport protein from inside the cell to the cell surface. The trafficking of this protein is somehow disrupted in insulin resistance. The purpose of this research is to follow up our exciting preliminary results on this system to shed light on the molecular processes that regulate the trafficking of the glucose transporter. Information resulting from our studies will lead to a better understanding of insulin-stimulated glucose transport and may also unravel the details of a related cellular secretion system that regulates neurotransmission. Our hope is that by understanding at the molecular level how cells regulate secretion, we can in the future develop therapeutics to counteract many of today s major health problems.