Link between oxidative stress and insulin resistance.

Abstract

Many studies on oxidative stress, insulin resistance, and antioxidant treatment have shown that increased oxidative stress may accelerate the development of diabetic complications through the excessive glucose and free fatty acids metabolism in diabetic and insulin-resistant states. Many pathogenic mechanisms such as insulin receptor substrate phosphorylation are involved in insulin resistance induced by oxidative stress. And antioxidant treatments can show benefits in animal models of diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance. However, negative evidence from large clinical trials suggests that new and more powerful antioxidants need to be studied to demonstrate whether antioxidants can be effective in treating diabetic complications. Furthermore, it appears that oxidative stress is only one of the factors contributing to diabetic complications. Thus, antioxidant treatment would most likely be more effective if it were coupled with other treatments for diabetic complications.