Pathophysiology
Type 2 diabetes is characterized by a combination of peripheral insulin resistance and inadequate insulin secretion by pancreatic beta cells. Insulin resistance, which has been attributed to elevated levels of free fatty acids and proinflammatory cytokines in plasma, leads to decreased glucose transport into muscle cells, elevated hepatic glucose production, and increased breakdown of fat.
A role for excess glucagon cannot be underestimated; indeed, type 2 diabetes is an islet paracrinopathy in which the reciprocal relationship between the glucagon-secreting alpha cell and the insulin-secreting beta cell is lost, leading to hyperglucagonemia and hence the consequent hyperglycemia.[11]
For type 2 diabetes mellitus to occur, both insulin resistance and inadequate insulin secretion must exist. For example, all overweight individuals have insulin resistance, but diabetes develops only in those who cannot increase insulin secretion sufficiently to compensate for their insulin resistance. Their insulin concentrations may be high, yet inappropriately low for the level of glycemia.
A simplified scheme for the pathophysiology of abnormal glucose metabolism in type 2 diabetes mellitus is depicted in the image below.