Developing a model of insulin-resistance skeletal muscle

About the project:

Skeletal muscle plays a major role in controlling our blood sugar levels after we eat, taking up about 80% of glucose from the blood into muscle cells. When muscles become less responsive to insulin, the hormone that helps move glucose into cells, this is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance very often precedes Type 2 Diabetes, a condition where the person has great difficulty maintaining a healthy level of blood sugar.

Studying insulin resistance in the lab has previously been difficult as lab-grown models of skeletal muscle don’t respond well to insulin. The team has now created stem-cell derived muscle that behaves more like real muscle, including taking up glucose when insulin is present. This project aims to continue to improve the lab-grown skeletal muscle, including to increase its sensitivity insulin, and then test if it can mimic insulin resistance. This will help us understand what goes wrong in Type 2 Diabetes and how to prevent it.

Lead researcher: A/Prof Richard Mills

Tissue of interest: Muscle

Explore more reNEW Melbourne projects