Victoria Therese Isaksen

Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her! The doctoral thesis!  Prøveforelesning over oppgitt emne holdes kl. 10.15, samme sted: "Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors in people with type-2 diabetes: mechanisms and effects on Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease / metabolic-associated fatty liver disease».  Prøveforelesningen vil også bli strømmet/the trail lecture will also be streamed. Disputasen starter kl.12.15 Disputasen vil bli strømmet her.  The defense will be streamed here.  Opptak av disputasen vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn. A recording of the disputation will be available for 24 hours.

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen:
Obesity and lifestyle-related diseases such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer and autoimmune disease are related through chronic, low-grade inflammation. Leptin and adiponectin are two hormones produced in fatty tissue that play important roles in inducing inflammation, thus promoting metabolic disturbances in the body. Our study aimed to find simple biological markers to identify early metabolic disturbances in obese individuals and to study these markers’ improvement with modest weight loss. 

Methods: We included participants for liver ultrasound to compare the grayscale of the liver and kidney in order to calculate their hepatorenal index (HRI, grade of fatty liver disease). We measured resting energy expenditure, triglycerides, insulin, glucose, leptin and adiponectin before and after meals, and performed these tests before and after weight loss treatment for participants with obesity. 

Results: Detecting mild-grade fatty liver disease (HRI ≥1.17) in ultrasound could predict insulin resistance in obese participants reasonably well for a screening test. Using a stricter limit for fatty liver disease (HRI ≥1.42) we could better rule out false positive predictions of insulin resistance. 
Leptin to adiponectin (L:A) ratio ≥3.65 predicted delayed triglyceride clearance after a fatty meal reasonably well in obese participants. L:A ratio ≥1.88 was suitable for detecting 2/3 of insulin resistance, leptin resistance and delayed triglyceride clearance. All of the above-mentioned conditions, except triglycerides after a fatty meal, improved substantially with modest weight loss of ≥5%.

Conclusion: The biological markers in our study can be useful for detecting and monitoring early metabolic disturbances in individuals with obesity, and also metabolic improvement with weight loss of as little as 5%. Furthermore, they can help us prioritize which patients to help in a healthcare system with limited resources.

Hovedveileder
Professor Eyvind Jakob Paulssen, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
 

Biveiledere
Professor Jon Ragnar Florholmen, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
Førsteamanuensis Rasmus Goll, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.

Bedømmelseskomité
Professor Steen Bendix Haugaard, Københavns Universitet  - 1. opponent.
Adjunkt professor Serena Tonstad, Loma Linda University, USA– 2. opponent.
Leder av komite er førsteamanuensis Rune Sundset, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet - leder av komité.
 

Disputasleder: Førsteamanuensis II Torgil Riise Vangberg, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.