Per-Anders Jansson

Professor/ Chief Physician

Department of Molecular and Clinical

Medicine

Mail

Per-Anders.Jansson@wlab.gu.se

Visiting address

Wallenberglab, Bruna stråket 16, SU/S

41345 Göteborg

Postal address

Wallenberglab, Bruna stråket 16, SU/S

41345 Göteborg

About Per-Anders Jansson

Dr Per-Anders Jansson is board certified in General Internal Internal Medicine, awarded University Hospital Senior Consultant and Professor in Translational Medical Research at the University of Gothenburg.

He is an expert on mechanisms behind insulin resistance in prediabetes/type 2 diabetes. The overall aim of his work is to elucidate the metabolic impact of vascular insulin-resistance and to implement novel strategies to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes.

Dr Jansson held a position as 50% Clinical Researcher at the Swedish Research Council 2006-2011 and from 2014 he is Professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy and 30% medical adviser Gothia Forum, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, region Västra Götaland.

Main research: breaking the "insulin barrier"

Type 2 diabetes blocks the bloodstream’s ability to distribute insulin to its target cells. That basic malfunction contributing to insulin-resistance makes one in five of us developing the disease at some stage in our lives and cases rising steadily. The IRVASC project, led by Per-Anders Jansson, aims to find out why.

The latest research project, Insulin Resistance Mechanisms in Human Vasculature (IRVASC) aims to answer a big question: what is it about the way the vascular system operates in humans that can cause it to block the very insulin it needs to distribute for the body’s survival? With nine out of ten diabetes patients having type 2, it is overwhelmingly the most prevalent form worldwide. Unlike type 1, where the pancreas fails to make insulin in the first place, type 2 largely involves lack of biologic effects of the insulin that is made – a malfunction known as insulin-resistance.

So we know what happens – but why? To this end, our group is focusing the research on three vascular-related issues: firstly, why does the capillary wall act as a barrier to transfer the insulin into the tissue; secondly, why doesn’t the bloodstream carry insulin to the cells – how do you improve blood flow sufficiently? And thirdly why do muscle cells and fat cells around the body then resist to respond when insulin finally have reached the target cell?

Our group has seen some progress with the compound tadalafil.We’re especially looking at the role of microvascular capillary recruitment after a meal. In a healthy body, blood flow increases after a meal, to distribute insulin to cells. But with type 2, blood flow is impaired and insulin is not distributed to cells in the periphery. Methodology for these studies involves taking adipose tissue samples from patients and healthy control groups and isolating microvascular cells in each. The aim is to discover the mechanism the vascular cells use to transport insulin through the capillary wall, and thus what is failing in the mechanism in diabetes patients.

Our group has seen some progress with the compound tadalafil. This was originally a drug used to combat impotence because it increases blood flow. But we’re seeing encouraging metabolic results when using it to increase blood flow in other areas too. We still need more data on this so it’s an area we will keep pursuing. Though our team is some way off understanding the complete mechanics of the insulin barrier, there has been significant progress towards this goal too. We have then been able to show that insulin-resistance is associated with an impaired signalling system in the key protein downstream the insulin receptor within the microvascular endothelium.

Ultimately, we all have one aim – to identify and understand the various factors that cause type 2 diabetes and find a way of preventing a disease that can show itself at any stage in a person’s life. Because at best it is a disease dramatically reducing the quality of life for millions of people around the world. At worst it is threatening the lives of millions more.

Group Members

Annika Johansson, Research Nurse
Emanuel Fryk, Practising physician combined with research
Maria Just, Research Nurse
Lena Strindberg, BMA, Research Associate
Vagner Ramon Rodrigues Silva, Post doc
Barbara Becattini, Researcher

Funding

The annual funding from the ALF-agreement, Medical research Council, Swedish Diabetes Association, and other external funding approximately 2.5 MSEK.

Key Publications

Mobini R, Tremaroli V, Ståhlman M, Karlsson F, Levin M, Ljungberg M, Schmelz M, Berteus Forslund H, Perkins R, Bäckhed F, Jansson P-A. Metabolic effects ofL. ReuteriDSM 17938 in people with type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial.
Fryk E, Perman Sundelin J, Strindberg L, Pereira M, Federici M, Marx N, Nyström F, Schmelz M, Svensson P-A, Eriksson J, Borén J, Jansson P-A. Microdialysis and proteomics of the subcutaneous interstitial fluid reveals abundance of galectin-1 in type 2 diabetes patients. Metabolism 65:998-1006 (2016).
Jansson P-A, Murdolo G, Sjögren L, Nyström B, Sjöstrand M, Strindberg L, Lönnroth P. Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition increases muscle capillary recruitment and forearm glucose uptake in type 2 diabetes patients. Diabetologia 2010:53:2205-8.
Eriksson JW, Smith U, Waagstein F, Wysocki M, Jansson PA. Glucose turnover and adipose tissue lipolysis are insulin-resistant in healthy relatives of type 2 diabetes patients: is cellular insulin resistance a secondary phenomenon? Diabetes 48:1572-8 (1999).
Jansson P-A, Larsson A, Smith U, Lönnroth P. Glycerol production in subcutaneous adipose tissue in lean and obese humans. J Clin Invest 89:1610-17, 1992