Identification of insulin specific signal transduction pathways in adipocytes

胰岛素抵抗是指胰岛素无法调节适当靶组织（如肌肉和脂肪组织）的代谢，它会导致包括糖尿病和肥胖症在内的许多疾病。这些组织的一个关键代谢步骤是从血液中摄取葡萄糖。胰岛素可以加速这一过程，从而在饭后有效清除血液中的葡萄糖。我们的实验室在表明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葡萄糖进入肌肉和脂肪组织方面发挥了重要作用（参见：- www.imb.uq.edu.au-groups-james-glut4这个过程的动画描述）。在目前的建议中，我们将采取一些策略来剖析连接胰岛素受体和葡萄糖转运体运动的信号转导途径。这些分子的鉴定将为这个重要的谜题提供缺失的部分。一旦解决了这个问题，我们就有了一套新的目标来设计对抗胰岛素抵抗性疾病的药物。

Insulin resistance, which represents an inability of insulin to regulate metabolism in appropriate target tissues such as muscle and adipose tissue, contributes to a number of diseases including diabetes and obesity. A key metabolic step in these tissues is the uptake of glucose from the blood stream. This step is accelerated by insulin thus allowing efficient clearance of glucose from the bloodstream after a meal. Our laboratory has played a major role in showing that insulin regulates glucose uptake into muscle and adipose tissue by stimulating the movement of a glucose transport protein from inside the cell to the cell surface (see http:--www.imb.uq.edu.au-groups-james-glut4 for an animated description of this process). In the present proposal we will pursue a number of strategies to dissect the signal transduction pathways that connect the insulin receptor to the movement of this glucose transporter. Identification of these molecules will provide the missing pieces to this important puzzle. Once solved we will have at our disposal a novel set of targets for designing drugs that will combat insulin resistant diseases.