An article recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine asserts that there has been found a cure for those suffering from diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases, human beings that manifest insulin resistance in short.

This cure refers to the retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4), a protein secreted by adipocytes - fat-containing cells of adipose tissue. It appears that serum levels of this protein are increased in the patients with insulin resistance and the lower the level of RBP4 in human body, the greater the chance to ameliorate or even to be cured from illnesses caused by insulin resistance.

Retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) is the specific carrier for retinol (vitamin A) in the blood, delivering retinol from the liver stores to the peripheral tissues. Retinol deficiency due to a hereditary defect in retinol-binding protein synthesis causes an atrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium, meaning that a person that has intermittent orange discoloration of palms, soles, and face is associated with persistently low levels of both vitamin A and serum-specific retinol-binding protein.

This protein is directly connected with the insulin in the body, which stimulates the producing of glucose in the body and also helps to maintain normal glucose levels in the blood. Glucose provides fuel for the synthesis of fat stores, which serve as the body's main energy reservoir in the adipose tissue. And when a decrease in the GLUT4 insulin transporter occurs, the retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) secretion increases, inhibiting insulin conveyance and glucose uptake in the human biological system.

In the scientific studies on insulin resistant subjects, when ascertained the fact that the growing of retinol-binding protein 4 level is directly connected with the increasing of patients' resistance to insulin, the conclusion that RBP4 has a negative effect on diabetes and connected diseases was drawn and it was taken into consideration the fact that this protein could even lead to insulin resistance.

Thus, the group of scholars signing under the Retinol-Binding Protein 4 and Insulin Resistance in Lean, Obese, and Diabetic Subjects article in the above-mentioned medical journal have done further research and after several experiments on animals reached the same conclusion: reducing the level of RBP4 in human body represents one of the most important means for treating diabetes and associated diseases.

This identifies a novel role of RBP4 in regulating insulin action and it is recorded as an adipocyte-derived hormone. Thus, measurement of serum or plasma RBP4 is a useful means for the understanding of metabolic disorders. In addition to this, Dr. Barbara Kahn, chief of the division of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston and one of the researchers in the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine declared: "In this study, we have found a new molecule which seems to track very tightly with insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome, which is a constellation of insulin resistance and other cardiovascular disease risk factors", obviously referring to RBP4.