Cited research: Cell Metab. 11, 467–478 (2010)

Insulin resistance is often associated with obesity. In mice, this link is partly attributable to a faulty cellular process called autophagy, through which a cell degrades its own damaged components. Gökhan Hotamisligil and his team at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, showed that obese mice have lower than normal levels of autophagy in the liver, marked by decreased expression of the ATG7 protein.

When they blocked ATG7 production in the livers of lean mice, the animals showed signs of insulin resistance and also of impaired function of a cell organelle called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which is involved in protein production and metabolic regulation. Restoring autophagy in obese mice resulted in less ER stress and improved insulin action. C.L.