Academic and Clinical Involvement

Dr. Pollet is the ACOS for research at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. The VAMC conducts a highly active, major research program that is among the ten largest in the nation and is largely conducted by VA physician-scientists who are also faculty members at Emory University School of Medicine. The research program involves over 200 projects conducted by 85 principal research investigators with more than 100 research associates and staff. The total research budget exceeds $15,000,000 in direct costs per year, with approximately half funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the remainder funded by the National Institutes of Health, the CDC and other sources. The research is performed in a new 40,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility that offers laboratories and core areas to support a wide variety of multidisciplinary programs.
    The VA can be linked at: http://www.va.gov/resdev/

Dr. Pollet was Acting Director, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism from 2000-2002.

Research Interests

Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is a common disorder involving about 25% of our veteran patients. It is associated with a markedly increased risk of hypertension, dyslipidemia, arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and cerebrovascular accident. The major pathogenic factor in this disorder is decreased insulin action (insulin resistance).

My laboratory focused in the past on the role which insulin-induced changes in membrane glycerolipid metabolism plays in the mechanism of insulin action. Insulin provokes rapid glucose-independent increases in hydrolysis of membrane phospholipids, mostly phospatidylcholine, in cultured myocytes, and in the synthesis of membrane glycerolipids resulting in several-fold increases in membrane diacylglycerol. Diacylglycerol may contribute to many of the pleiotropic effects of insulin, especially stimulation of glucose transport. Insulin causes an increase in the Vmax of the glucose transporter, and resistance to this effect may contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus.

Currently our program is developing an emphasis on the clinical implications of insulin resistance in the very large number of veterans with type II diabetes mellitus. Outcomes research has established a clinical imperative to intensify the management of diabetes in order to decrease the pandemic proportions of diabetic complications and their morbidity in human and economic costs.