Adipobiology of the brain: from brain diabetes to adipose Alzheimer's disease

Recent studies suggest that diabetes mellitus affects multiple cognitive functions including expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP), amyloid-? (A?) peptide and hyperphosphorylated Tau-molecular signatures of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Further, the administration of streptozotocin (STZ), a well known experimental model for diabetes, induces brain insulin resistance and cognitive alterations resembling those in AD patients. Thus the STZ treatment became a new experimental tool in studying AD, which is increasingly evaluated as type 3 diabetes. Accordingly, the concept of brain diabetes was introduced. We have reported that STZ-induced diabetes is associated with changes in nerve growth factor (NGF) levels in both pancreas and brain (Arch Ital Biol 2007; 145: 87-97). Intriguingly, data of an extraneuronal production of both APP and A? peptides including in the adipose tissue were reported. In the last 20 ...