Consequences of high dietary fructose in the islet-transplanted rat with suboptimal beta-cell mass

Metabolic effects of dietary cholesterol in an animal model of insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis

Although the atherogenic role of dietary cholesterol has been well established, its diabetogenic potential and associated metabolic disturbances have not been reported. Diet-induced hamster models of insulin resistance and dyslipidemia were employed to determine lipogenic and diabetogenic effects of dietary cholesterol. Metabolic studies were conducted in hamsters fed diets rich in fructose (40%), fat (30%), and cholesterol (0.05-0.25%) (FFC) and other test diets. Short-term feeding of the FFC diet induced insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, hypertriglyceridemia, and hypercholesterolemia. Prolonged feeding (6-22 wk) of the FFC diet led to severe hepatic steatosis, glucose intolerance, and mild increases in fasting blood glucose, suggesting progression toward type 2 diabetes, but did not induce beta-cell dysfunction. Metabolic changes induced by the diet, including dyslipidemia and insulin resistance, were cholesterol concentration dependent and were only markedly induced on a high-fructose and high-fat dietary background. There were significant increases in hepatic and plasma triglyceride with FFC feeding, likely due to a 10- to 15-fold induction of hepatic stearoyl-CoA desaturase compared with chow levels (P < 0.03). Hepatic insulin resistance was evident based on reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor-beta, IRS-1, and IRS-2 as well as increased protein mass of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B. Interestingly, nuclear liver X receptor (LXR) target genes such as ABCA1 were upregulated on the FFC diet, and dietary supplementation with an LXR agonist (instead of dietary cholesterol) worsened dyslipidemia, glucose intolerance, and upregulation of target mRNA and proteins similar to that of dietary cholesterol. In summary, these data clearly implicate dietary cholesterol, synergistically acting with dietary fat and fructose, as a major determinant of the severity of metabolic disturbances in the hamster model. Dietary cholesterol appears to induce hepatic cholesterol ester and triglyceride accumulation, and diet-induced LXR activation (via cholesterol-derived oxysterols) may possibly be one key underlying mechanism.

Regulation of the fructose transporter GLUT5 in health and disease

Fructose is now such an important component of human diets that increasing attention is being focused on the fructose transporter GLUT5. In this review, we describe the regulation of GLUT5 not only in the intestine and testis, where it was first discovered, but also in the kidney, skeletal muscle, fat tissue, and brain where increasing numbers of cell types have been found to have GLUT5. GLUT5 expression levels and fructose uptake rates are also significantly affected by diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and inflammation and seem to be induced during carcinogenesis, particularly in the mammary glands. We end by highlighting research areas that should yield information needed to better understand the role of GLUT5 during normal development, metabolic disturbances, and cancer.