These results indicate that WISP1 contributes to hepatic steatosis and skeletal muscle insulin resistance through a TLR4-activated inflammation/JNK signaling pathway and could be a useful therapeutic target for treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.
Recent studies have shown that WISP1 can regulate low-grade inflammation in obese mice, and circulating WISP1 levels are associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus in adults.
We demonstrated that higher proNT levels are significantly associated with greater macrophages infiltration, HIF-1#, WISP-1, and UNC5B expression in VAT (all <i>p</i> < 0.01) due to the diagnosis of T2D and NAFLD.
Serum and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) biopsies, for analysis of circulating WISP1 levels by ELISA and WISP1 mRNA expression by real-time quantitative RT-PCR, were collected from normal-weight men (control group, n = 33) and obese men with (n = 46) and without type 2 diabetes (n = 56) undergoing surgery.