ArticleDiabetes2020
Glucolipotoxicity, β-Cells, and Diabetes: The Emperor Has No Clothes.
Article in Diabetes, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 107 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
107 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 164 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of different hypoglycaemic drugs on beta-cell function in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.European journal of medical research · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Worksite-based intensive lifestyle therapy has profound cardiometabolic benefits in people with obesity and type 2 diabetes.Cell metabolism · 2022Trial
- Article
- A dish-to-biobank framework links β-cell nutrient-stress programs to genetic and dietary risk for Type 2 Diabetes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Caffeic acid restores neurogenesis and synaptic integrity under glucolipotoxic stress by suppressing inflammation and pyroptosis.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Article
- Ketoacidosis at childhood type 1 diabetes onset negatively affects residual beta-cell functions during the first year after diagnosis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Time dynamics of elevated glucose and beta-hydroxybutyrate on beta cell mitochondrial metabolism.Islets · 2025Article
- Insulin Quantification Through Electrochemical and Optical Aptasensors: A Review.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2025Review
- From NAFPD to MAFPD: a literature review of implications of a nomenclature change.Hepatobiliary surgery and nutrition · 2025Review
- Mechanisms behind the anti-diabetic and anti-obesity effects of seaweeds or macroalgae and their bioactive compounds.World journal of diabetes · 2025Review
- The interplay of tumor suppressor p53 and oxidative stress in pancreatic β-cell apoptosis and insulin resistance in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus.Diabetology & metabolic syndrome · 2025Article
- The role of the beta cell in type 2 diabetes: new findings from the last 5 years.Diabetologia · 2025Review
- Association Between the Glucose-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and 28-Day Mortality in Patients with Mechanical Ventilation.Balkan medical journal · 2025Article
- Article
- Effects of Hypertriglyceridemia With or Without NEFA Elevation on β-cell Function and Insulin Clearance and Sensitivity.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Article
- Article
- Changes of CA19-9 levels and related influencing factors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus after antidiabetic therapy.Scientific reports · 2025Observational
- Obesity's systemic impact: exploring molecular and physiological links to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and heart failure.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- Endocrine consequences of childhood obesity: a narrative review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Reduction of β-cell mass and function is central to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. The terms glucotoxicity, lipotoxicity, and glucolipotoxicity are used to describe potentially responsible processes. The premise is that chronically elevated glucose levels are toxic to β-cells, that elevated lipid levels in the form of circulating free fatty acids (FFA) also have toxic effects, and that the combination of the two, glucolipotoxicity, is particularly harmful. Much work has shown that high concentrations of FFA can be very damaging to β-cells when used for in vitro experiments, and when infused in large amounts in humans and rodents they produce suppression of insulin secretion. The purpose of this Perspective is to raise doubts about whether the FFA levels found in real-life situations are ever high enough to cause problems. Evidence supporting the importance of glucotoxicity is strong because there is such a tight correlation between defective insulin secretion and rising glucose levels. However, there is virtually no convincing evidence that the alterations in FFA levels occurring during progression to diabetes are pathogenic. Thus, the terms lipotoxicity and glucolipotoxicity should be used with great caution, if at all, because evidence supporting their importance has not yet emerged.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.