Role of adipose hypoxia in endocrine alterations: a possible new anti-inflammatory therapeutic target in obesity?

Abstract

Dr Jianping Ye is a Professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University (LA, USA). He completed his graduate education in the medical school, Beijing University (China) in 1989 and moved to the USA to undertake postdoctoral research in 1992. He conducted research in the role of inflammation in cancer and was an instructor at the Health Science Center at San Antonio, University of Texas (TX, USA) in 1997, and assistant professor in the West Virginia University (WV, USA) in 1999. In 2001, he set up his lab at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, where obesity research is the main focus. His current work, supported by NIH and American Diabetes Association, predominantly focuses on insulin resistance in obesity. Recent work from his lab reported that adipose hypoxia may contribute to chronic inflammation and insulin resistance in obesity. The study was based on the hypoxia effect on the endocrine function of adipocytes in a preliminary study of large adipocytes in his laboratory in 2004. Here, Nicole Nogoy talks to Jianping Ye on the future and current issues in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance.