UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    THE EFFECTS OF OBESITY ON PLASMA LEVELS OF OMENTIN, A DEPOT-SPECIFIC ADIPOCYTOKINE
    (2004-08-27) de Souza Batista, Celia Maria; Kantor, Mark; McLenithan, John; Nutrition; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Obesity is a chronic pathological condition and a risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It has been demonstrated that adipose tissue functions not only as a fat storage depot but also as an endocrine organ. Omentin is a protein expressed and secreted in adipose tissue that increases insulin-stimulated glucose transport. To further elucidate omentin's physiological function, its levels were measured by quantitative western blotting in plasma from 44 healthy nondiabetic volunteers (22 women, 22 men). Participants were organized into sibling pairs based on discordant BMI (3-12 Kg/m2). Lean subjects had significantly higher omentin levels than obese/overweight subjects (independent of sex), and significantly higher omentin levels were detected in women compared to men. Omentin levels were inversely correlated with BMI and positively correlated with HDL levels. These data suggest that omentin may play a physiological role in the pathogenesis of obesity-dependent insulin resistance.