Diabetes & Obesity

The World Health Organization reports 346 million people world-wide with diabetes. In addition, many people have pre-diabetes, a condition common in obese patients that often leads to diabetes. These 2 diseases, diabetes and obesity, occur in an ever increasing number of people, and can reduce quality of life as well as life expectancy. During food consumption, insulin release activates insulin signaling and cellular uptake of glucose, resulting in synthesis and storage of complex carbohydrates and lipids. Dysregulation of this process causes excess glucose to remain in the bloodstream, resulting in diabetes mellitus. There are 3 forms of diabetes: Type 1 (insulin-dependent), Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent, or NIDDM), and gestational diabetes. Patients with insulin-dependent (juvenile) diabetes produce little or no insulin, due to pancreatic beta cell destruction by an autoimmune response. NIDDM, or adult-onset diabetes, is the most common form of diabetes. In this disease, cells do not respond to insulin properly (insulin resistance), resulting in a lack of glucose storage. Resistance to insulin can develop late in life, especially after a prolonged high-calorie diet and in association with other risk factors. Insulin resistance is a key link between obesity and NIDDM, and may be caused by dysregulation of the complex signaling between adipose tissue, pancreatic islets, liver, and skeletal muscle.

QIAGEN provides a broad range of assay technologies for diabetes and obesity research that enables analysis of gene expression and regulation, epigenetic modification, genotyping, and signal transduction pathway activation. Solutions optimized for diabetes and obesity studies include PCR array, miRNA, siRNA, mutation analysis, pathway reporter, chromatin IP, DNA methylation, and protein expression products.