Ann Hammarstedt

Institution/Department: Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine/Diabetes. The Lundberg Laboratory for Diabetes Research.
Previous studies: University of Gothenburg
Thesis: Molecular characterization of insulin resistance in the adipose tissue and the effects of thiazolidinediones.
Research areas: Type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, adipocyte biology.
Type 2 diabetes is increasing world-wide at an epidemic rate and is expected to reach 350 million inflicted individuals by 2025. Since the health costs in most developed countries for this disease are already 6-15 %, this epidemic will impose a major burden on society. Insulin resistance precedes type 2 diabetes and is also a major contributor to the increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality seen in type 2 diabetes and other states of impaired glucose tolerance.
Our laboratory has shown that insulin resistance is associated with impaired adipocyte differentiation. This finding suggests that impaired adipocyte differentiation and, as a result, a dysregulated adipose tissue, could be a major contributor to insulin resistance and the development of Type 2 diabetes. It is well known that insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes is associated with a low-grade systemic inflammation that emanates from the adipose tissue this has also been shown to be associated with enlarged fat cell size. Furthermore, both the increased fat cell size and inflammatory cytokines is associated with recruitment of macrophages to the adipose tissue, which aggravates the inflammatory state of the adipose tissue. The over-all focus of my research is to characterize the cellular and molecular mechanisms relating insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes to inflammation, Wnt-signaling and impaired adipocyte differentiation.

E-mail address: ann.hammarstedt@medic.gu.se
www.medicine.gu.se/avdelningar/molekylarmedicin/Lundberglab/