Although obesity is associated with insulin resistance, most obese humans and rodents
remain normoglycemic because of compensatory hyperinsulinemia. This has been
attributed to β-cell hyperplasia and increased low K m glucose metabolism of islets. Since
free fatty acids (FFA) can induce these same β-cell changes in normal islets of Wistar rats
and since plasma FFA are increased in obesity, FFA could be the signal from adipocytes that
elicits β-cell compensation sufficient to prevent diabetes. To determine if FFA-induced …