Suneil Koliwad, MD, PhD

Associate Professor
Diabetes Center
Research Overview: 

My laboratory investigates the role of chronic inflammation in the development of Type 2 Diabetes and how dietary lipids modulate the activation of innate immune cells that trigger and maintain inflammation in metabolic tissues.

Beyond comprising our bodily energy stores, dietary lipids are necessary for several critical processes, including the synthesis of cellular membranes, vitamins, skin lipids and waxes, blood clotting, gene expression, and cell signaling cascades. However, when chronically in excess, dietary fat intake is associated with several diseases, including diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, certain cancers, and atherosclerosis, which together exact a huge toll on human health. Given the high prevalence of high-fat diets in our world, determining the links between dietary lipids and these diseases is of biomedical and socioeconomic importance. 

One emerging possibility involves chronic inflammation. Excess dietary fat intake often produces tissue inflammation that manifests prior to disease onset. For type 2 diabetes, this process is characterized by the inflammatory (M1) activation of innate immune cells, including macrophages and dendritic cells, in metabolic tissues such as white adipose, muscle, and liver. In exploring how dietary lipids may act as proximal triggers of macrophage activation, we showed that genetically-altered murine macrophages with an increased capacity to store dietary fats as intracellular triacylglycerol are less vulnerable to M1 inflammatory activation both in culture and in living mice. Remarkably, by transplanting these protective macrophages into mice protected them against developing diabetes driven by diet-induced obesity.

We are now deeply focused on probing the mechanisms by which intracellular fatty acids modulate inflammatory activation in macrophages, dendritic cells, and CNS microglia and determine how these impact type 2 diabetes, neurodegeneration, and other diseases in which chronic inflammation precedes overt disease.

Primary Thematic Area: 
Tissue / Organ Biology & Endocrinology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Immunology
Research Summary: 
The Intersection between Dietary Lipids, Inflammation, and Metabolic Disease

Websites

Publications: 

Microglia mediate the early-life programming of adult glucose control.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology

Valdearcos M, McGrath ER, Brown Mayfield SM, Folick A, Cheang RT, Li L, Bachor TP, Lippert RN, Xu AW, Koliwad SK

1879-LB: Automated Self-Adjusting Subcutaneous Insulin Algorithm (SQIA) Improves Glycemic Control in Hospitalized Patients—Three-Year Experience.

Diabetes

GWENDOLYN LEE, MICHAEL A. KOHN, ESTHER ROV-IKPAH, PARAS MEHTA, CRAIG SAN LUIS, CRAIG JOHNSON, SUNEIL K. KOLIWAD, ROBERT J. RUSHAKOFF

Novel Automated Self-adjusting Subcutaneous Insulin Algorithm Improves Glycemic Control and Physician Efficiency in Hospitalized Patients.

Journal of diabetes science and technology

Mehta PB, Kohn MA, Rov-Ikpah E, San Luis C, Johnson C, Lee G, Koliwad S, Rushakoff RJ

PTP1B mediates the inhibitory effect of MFGE8 on insulin signaling through the β5 integrin.

The Journal of biological chemistry

Datta R, Mukherjee D, Podolsky MJ, Yang CD, Alba DL, Singh S, Arnold TD, Koliwad S, Lizama CO, Atabai K

Second-Line Pharmaceutical Treatments for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

JAMA Network Open

Vashisht R, Patel A, Dahm L, Han C, Medders KE, Mowers R, Byington CL, Koliwad SK, Butte AJ