Adipose tissue is considered a key link between obesity and
type 2 diabetes by promoting the development of lipotoxicity,
i.e. cell damage as a consequence of elevated intracellular lipid
concentrations and insulin resistance (Lelliott and Vidal-Puig,
2004). Insulin resistance either at the adipocyte or skeletal muscle
levels contribute to hyperglycemia. However, adipocytes
from different sites of the body may have different biological
or pathological effects.
Pathways related to insulin resistance may be studied in cell
lines of adipocytes such as murine 3T3-L1 cells (Karalee et al.,
2001) and rat L6 muscle engineered to over-express GLUT4
(Maddux et al., 2001) and may be employed as tools to evaluate
the effects of natural products upon glucose uptake.