Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Accumulating evidence suggests a role for IGF1 in insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. IGF1 enhances glucose uptake and nitric oxide (NO) production, via similar mechanisms to insulin. Previously we have reported a mouse model with global heterozygous knockout of the IGF1 receptor (IGF1RKO) that has enhanced insulin sensitivity and increased nitric oxide (NO) production in the vasculature.Methods: To investigate this further we us...

Endothelial dysfunction is a key step in the initiation of atherosclerosis, resulting from a decrease in bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO). IGF-1 may play a part in regulation of NO production via the PI3-kinase/Akt/eNOS pathway. We have investigated whether disturbances of this pathway occur in dietary-induced obesity.Obesity was induced in mice fed a high fat diet for 20 weeks (n=12), compared to chow fed controls, with an age-related increas...