RESEARCH ARTICLE Vaspin inhibits kallikrein 7 by serpin mechanism

© The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com not related to vaspin-mediated changes in insulin sensitiv-ity as determined by euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp studies. Improved glucose metabolism could be mediated by increased insulin plasma concentrations 150 min after a glucose challenge in db/db mice, supporting the hypoth-esis that vaspin may inhibit insulin degradation by hK7 in the circulation. In conclusion, we demonstrate the inhibi-tory serpin nature and the first protease target of the adipose tissue-derived serpin vaspin, and our findings suggest hK7 inhibition by vaspin as an underlying physiological mecha-nism for its compensatory actions on obesity-induced insu-lin resistance