04/01/2012

The group of Diabetes and Metabolism at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) has determined for the first time a link between the inflammation of low degree, typical of the people with obesity and/or diabetes type II, and the low levels of the SHBG (sex hormone-binding globular) or transport protein of sexual hormones. Always the diabetes and the obesity have been related to low levels of sexual hormones, especially the testosterone in the men, and this had been assumed as linked to the hiperinsulinemia or high concentrations of insulin in the blood. Apart from erectile dysfunction, the low levels of SHBG and testosterone are associated to a major risk of cardiovascular disease.The study directed by VHIR's team determines that they are not the own levels of insulin those that produce this decrease of the SHBG but the reduction of SHBG's hepatic production will depend on the degree of inflammation and is the TNFa the responsible of the fall of this protein and, therefore, of the sexual hormones in the people who present obesity or diabetes mellitus type II. This discovery will allow to design more directed therapeutic strategies and it opens a new field that connects the inflammation with the levels of sexual hormones and can explain why in many chronic diseases are found diminished levels of sexual hormones.