In type II diabetes and in obesity, blood levels of free fatty acids (FFA) are generally elevated relative to healthy individuals. Increasing evidence indicates that these elevated FFA levels impair the body's ability to regulate glucose and respond to insulin. Blood levels of FFA are regulated by the uptake and release of FFA from adipocytes (fat cells).

Dr. Kleinfeld, working with Dr. Kampf and Dr. Garcia, has developed methods that for the first time allow one to monitor the levels of FFA within living adipocytes. These methods investigate how FFA are transported into and out of adipocytes; the results have led to the surprising finding that adipocytes pump FFA into the cells and have a mechanism for sensing the level of FFA in the blood plasma that regulates how rapidly FFA are released from the cells into the plasma. These results suggest a considerably more elaborate mechanism for regulating blood levels and raise the possibility of novel drug targets for treating diabetes.

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