ABSTRACT
Insulin resistance is a common pathological state in which target cells fail to respond to ordinary levels of circulating insulin. It is frequently associated with a number of diseases, including chronic infection, human obesity and non insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) (1, 2). At the molecular level, impaired insulin signaling results from mutations or post translation modifications of the insulin receptor itself or any of its downstream effector molecules {cf. (2, 3) for recent reviews}. In some cases insulin resistance could be accounted for by a defect in insulin binding to its receptor (4), however most often insulin-resistance is attributed to a post-binding defect in insulin action (5).
