Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Linking Environmental Toxicant Exposure To Diabetes Susceptibility, Jannifer Beth Tyrrell

Wayne State University Dissertations

An important and unresolved question in the environmental health field is whether exposure to common environmental toxicants, such as dioxin and heavy metals like Pb, increase the risk of developing diabetes, especially in combination with other common metabolic stressors such as obesity.

Previous studies suggested that dioxin exposure increased peripheral insulin resistance but did not appear to cause fasting hyperglycemia or elevated hepatic glucose output. In concordance with those findings we observed that dioxin treatment caused a strong suppression of the expression of the key hepatic gluconeogenic genes PEPCK and G6Pase. However, this suppression was not solely mediated by the …

The Effect Of Maternal Beliefs And Behavior On The Body Weight Status Of Preschool-Aged Children, Nicole Lynn Boucher

Wayne State University Dissertations

Early onset pediatric obesity has become a major health concern in the United States. Pediatric obesity can lead to childhood hypertension, type II diabetes, and orthopedic problems. Currently, in the United States one in seven low-income preschools are overweight or obese. One of the key contributing factors to early onset childhood obesity is how children are socialized to the eating and mealtime environment. Maternal feeding styles play an integral role in how children are socialized to the eating and mealtime environment.

The purpose of the this study was to determine the extent to which maternal beliefs and behavior regarding the …

Fatty Acid Fate In Determining Oxidation And Inflammation In Adipose Tissue, Emilio Patrick Mottillo

Wayne State University Dissertations

Adipose tissue (AT) is a critical regulator of energy balance through its ability to store or oxidize free fatty acids (FFAs). White adipose tissue (WAT) functions as an anabolic organ to sequester and release FAs, in contrast brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a catabolic organ that oxidizes FAs. However, a comprehensive understanding of the role that FFAs play in the function of WAT and BAT is needed. Here we demonstrate that intracellular FAs enhance the expression of inflammatory cytokines by β3-AR activation in adipocytes, in which the expression of PAI-1 is partly mediated by the de novo synthesis of ceramides/sphingolipids. …