Inflammatory Induction of Human Resistin Causes Insulin Resistance in Endotoxemic Mice

OBJECTIVE—Although adipocyte-derived murine resistin links insulin resistance to obesity, the role of human resistin, pre-dominantly expressed in mononuclear cells and induced by inflammatory signals, remains unclear. Given the mounting evidence that obesity and type 2 diabetes are inflammatory diseases, we sought to determine the relationship between inflammatory increases in human resistin and insulin resistance. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—To investigate the role of human resistin on glucose homeostasis in inflammatory states, we generated mice lacking murine resistin but transgenic for a bacterial artificial chromosome containing human resistin (BAC-Retn), whose expression was similar to that in humans. The metabolic and molecular phenotypes of BAC-Retn mice were assessed after acute and chronic endotoxemia (i.e., exposure to inflammatory lipopolysaccharide)