Mechanisms of disease: inflammasome activation and the development of type 2 diabetes.

ABSTRACT: Over the recent past, the importance of aberrant immune cell activation as one of the contributing mechanisms to the development of insulin-resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been recognized. Among the panoply of pro-inflammatory cytokines that are linked to chronic metabolic diseases, new data suggests that interleukin-1β (IL-1β) may play an important role in initiating and sustaining inflammation-induced organ dysfunction in T2D. Therefore, factors that control secretion of bioactive IL-1β have therapeutic implications. In this regard, the identification of multiprotein scaffolding complexes, "inflammasomes," has been a great advance in our understanding of this process. The secretion of bioactive IL-1β is predominantly controlled by activation of caspase-1 through assembly of a mu

SUBMITTER: Grant RW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3592198 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature