UC San Diego

Diabetes is a chronic health condition that has reached global epidemic proportions and continues to increase with every passing year. There are two major types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2 diabetes (T2D); 90 percent of those living with this health condition have T2D. These individuals suffer from high blood glucose levels, which induces insulin resistance and eventual organ failure that leads to death. Current therapeutic approaches to alleviate high glucose levels are limited to dieting, personally administered insulin injections, devices that release insulin, and blood glucose lowering pharmacological agents. We believe that glycocalyx remodeling could be a potential therapeutic to improve glucose homeostasis in individuals with T2D. We have generated evidence that heparan sulfate mimetics will alter the differentiation program of pre-adipocytes by modulating Wnt signaling. This results in adipocytes with increased glucose uptake and utilization independent of insulin secretion. In this current study, we aim to identify a targetable pre-adipocyte marker to selectively deliver our heparan sulfate mimetic. This marker will then be utilized to demonstrate that heparan sulfate mimetic addition during adipogenesis does not alter cell identity and function.