The Expression of Insr-β, Insr-α, and P300 in Palmitic Acid and Glucose Treated HepG2 Cells

Type II diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder that affects 500 million people across the world and is characterized by persistent hyperglycemia and insulin resistance. Complications associated with diabetes include cardiovascular disease, eye damage and kidney disease. Insulin resistance occurs due to defects in the insulin signaling pathway. Here we explore different modalities of inducing insulin resistance in HepG2 cells, as part of a larger study to develop treatments to reverse insulin resistance. We used a dose response to find out what concentration of glucose, palmitic acid (PA), and insulin each treatment is required to induce insulin resistance. We used western blots to assess the differences in expression of these proteins based on their treatment. We found that there were differences in the expression of our proteins of interests among samples based on the concentrations of treatment.