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Indications of adipose tissue dysfunction correlate with systemic insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. It has been suggested that a defect in adipose tissue turnover may be involved in the development of these disorders. Whether this dysfunction causes or exacerbates systemic insulin resistance is not fully understood.

We tested whether the expression of members of the mitogenic ErbB family was reduced in adipose tissue of insulin-resistant individuals and whether ErbB1 and ErbB2 were involved in adipogenesis. Thirty-two women covering a wide range of body mass index values and insulin sensitivity participated in the cross-sectional portion of this study. We also studied preadipocytes isolated from 12 insulin-sensitive individuals to evaluate the impact of ErbB1 or ErbB2 inhibition on adipogenesis in vitro. For this purpose, we …