This Review will focus on the role of PPARgamma in human physiology, with specific reference to clinical pharmacological studies, and analysis of PPARG gene variants in the abnormal lipid and carbohydrate metabolism of the metabolic syndrome.
However, this evolutionary adaptation to store energy in fat, which can be released under the form of fatty acids, potent PPARgamma agonists, has become a disadvantage in today's affluent society as it results in numerous metabolic imbalances, collectively known as the metabolic syndrome.
My aim in addressing the issue of the potential impact of PPAR-gamma receptor agonists on cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality in the diabetic, is first, to seek to enhance both an awareness of, and greater familiarity among our own physicians, with this class of drug, and secondly, to effect a timely review of the recent literature as it relates to the tremendous possibilities for the potential clinical gains that might accrue from their use, in so far as this may serve to ameliorate the ravages of the CVD disease that all too tragically attends the type 2 diabetic, and more specifically those with the insulin resistance syndrome.
These results suggest that the PPAR-gammaP12A polymorphism can modulate the association between dietary fat intake and components of the metabolic syndrome.
We conclude that PPARgamma gene polymorphism may be a reliable indicator of whether exercise will have a beneficial effect as part of the treatment of insulin resistance syndrome.
Comment: studies of the Pro12Ala polymorphism of the PPAR-gamma gene in the Danish MONICA cohort: homozygosity of the Ala allele confers a decreased risk of the insulin resistance syndrome.