Save
Email
Print
ShareScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2007) — Overweight children and adults have low levels in their blood of a protein known as SHGB, which transports sex steroids and regulates their entry into tissues.
Low levels of SHGB are a marker of the metabolic syndrome, a combination of medical disorders that increase an individual's risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
An explanation as to why low levels of SHGB are such a good marker of the metabolic syndrome are now provided by Geoffrey Hammond and colleagues at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
In the study, exposure to glucose and fructose (monomeric sugar building blocks of carbohydrates) reduced the production of SHGB in vitro by a human liver cell line and in vivo by the liver of mice engineered to express human SHGB.
Decreased production of SHGB was mediated by decreased expression of a protein that stimulates the gene that makes SHGB (HNF-4-alpha) and was associated with increased amounts of the fat palmitate in the liver cells. Importantly, glucose- and fructose-induced decreases in SHGB production were prevented by inhibiting palmitate generation.
These data provide a mechanistic link between excess sugar and carbohydrate consumption and decreased levels of SHGB, indicating the reason it is a good marker of the metabolic syndrome.
Journal article:Monosaccharide-induced lipogenesis regulates the human hepatic sex hormone--binding globulin gene, Journal of Clinical Investigation, November 8, 2007.
Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Journal of Clinical Investigation, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
more 
