It is shown herein that the expression of the OcaB protein is modulated in adipocytes during adipogenesis the development of insulin resistance the glucose intolerance and ageing. The application thus provides methods of characterizing an individual susceptibility to develop adipogenesis insulin resistance and/or glucose intolerance methods of diagnosing insulin resistance and/or glucose intolerance methods of characterizing the effectiveness of an agent in the treatment prevention or alleviation of symptoms of adipogenesis insulin resistance and/or glucose intolerance screening assays to identify agents useful in the treatment prevention or alleviation of symptoms of adipogenesis insulin resistance and/or glucose intolerance based on the assessment of a parameter of an OcaB based reagent.
