The developing link of metabolic growth factors in insulin resistance

Abstract

Obesity has become a major problem in public health over the past few years. It is strongly associated with insulin resistance, the central pathological process in many metabolic disorders. Now it is generally acknowledged that adipose tissue plays a vital role in the obesity-induced insulin resistance as an active endocrine organ. Many “classic” adipokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, adiponectin, and leptin have been studied extensively but recently many novel metabolic regulators which belong to growth factor family, such as FGF21, VEGF, TGF-β superfamily, have gained much attention. While some of these growth factors have showed greater promise in palliating insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the role of others’ remains obscure or shrouded in mystery due to their pleiotropic nature. Plethora of research has been reported to trace their role in insulin-resistance in peripheral insulin-responsive tissues, like adipose tissue and skeletal muscle. In this review we attempted to analyze the role of various growth factors in insulin resistance as a result of mutual cross-talk between metabolic tissues.