Can type 2 diabetic serum alter macrophage phenotype

• Main Author: Lim, Jia Ying Tanoto
• Other Authors: Yusuf Ali
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Medicine
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72627
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Inflammation, caused by obesity and metabolic changes, contributes to the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) via many mechanisms and may be mediated by circulating cytokines and inflammatory markers produced by macrophages and other inflammatory cells. However, previous research has focused on specific players presumed to trigger the inflammation, such as fatty acids and high glucose, and the phenotype of macrophages when exposed to diabetic serum itself remains unclear. In this project, mouse macrophages (RAW264.7) were exposed for 16h to serum from either diabetic or normoglycemic subjects, and their M1 and M2 gene expression analysed using quantitative PCR to determine any changes in macrophage phenotype. Results showed that there was a trend towards M1 phenotype in macrophages exposed to diabetic serum, although this was not statistically significant and limited by small sample size (n=5). Further elucidation of the phenotype of macrophages may help in the understanding of the pathogenesis of T2D and development of potential drug targets towards the underlying β-cell loss in T2D from inflammation.