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Nature 415, 268-269 (17 January 2002) | doi:10.1038/415268a

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Diabetes: Fat in all the wrong places

Jeffrey Friedman

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Obesity and a rare, congenital absence of fat cells are associated with damaging levels of fat in various tissues, and diabetes. Leptin helps to remedy these problems by causing oxidation of fatty acids in mitochondria.

Obesity is often associated with insulin-resistant diabetes, and the health consequences of excessive fat can largely be attributed to this connection1. The cause of the association is not known.