Publications of Dr. Abate

Dr. Nicola Abate has made significant discoveries during his period of investigation in the Center for Human Nutrition. His research on the role of abdominal obesity on insulin resistance has forced a rethinking of this relationship. Insulin resistance is a metabolic defect in which the action of insulin on the cells of the body is deficient. The consequences of this defect are a generalized metabolic disorder called the Metabolic Syndrome. The latter is characterized by blood lipid abnormalities (high triglycerides, small LDL, and low HDL), high blood pressure, high blood glucose, and blood clotting abnormalities. It has been recognized for many years that obesity, particularly when it occurs in the upper body, is associated with insulin resistance. However, many investigators believed that most of the problem resulted from accumulation of fat within the abdominal cavity (visceral obesity). The fat outside the abdominal cavity (subcutaneous fat) was largely ignored. Dr. Abate developed a method to accurately measure both visceral fat and abdominal subcutaneous fat in human subjects using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Subsequently, using this method, he found that subcutaneous abdominal fat had more effect on insulin resistance than does visceral fat. This discovery was extended both to normal subjects and to patients with adult-onset type 2 diabetes. This important finding at first elicited disbelief on the part of much of the obesity and diabetes community, and subsequently it has been confirmed by other reputable investigators. Later, Dr. Abate and co-workers found that male subjects migrating to the United States from India are unusually insulin resistant. At the present time Dr. Abate is continuing his research in the study of the metabolic and genetic causes of insulin resistance in Asian Indians. He has recently received a 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue these studies.