Diabetes and Heart Failure

Researchers get $750,000 grant to investigate diabetic complications

Drs. Dean Schwartz and Robert Judd of the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology at the College of Veterinary Medicine say that understanding the effects of diabetes on the heart is important in developing therapies to reduce the rate of heart disease for diabetics.

“The study’s objective is to identify the pathogenic mechanisms that underlie the changes in heart function commonly associated with diabetes,” said Dr. Schwartz. “We want our findings to shed light on ways to increase a diabetic patient’s quality of life and overall life-expectancy."

Diabetes mellitus, or sugar diabetes, is a metabolic disease that occurs in humans and animals when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin. This makes it difficult for blood sugar to enter the body’s cells.

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form, affects 15 million Americans, and if left untreated, it can lead to blindness, kidney failure, stroke and amputations, in addition to the strong risk of cardiovascular disease. Complications from cardiovascular disease are the leading cause of death among diabetics, resulting in more than 80 percent of all deaths.

“Of particular local interest is that Alabama resides in what is known as the ‘stroke belt,’ where the incidence of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease has reached epidemic levels,” Dr. Judd said.

Diabetics have fewer warning signs of heart attack, increased mortality during the first year after a heart attack, poorer response to angioplasty, and high rates of congestive heart failure, according to the researchers.

"Unfortunately, in spite of the widely appreciated magnitude of the problem, little progress has been made in understanding the cause of diabetic cardiomyopathy,” Dr. Schwartz said.

The Auburn University research will determine the role of a compound, endothelin-1, in the development of heart failure in diabetes. The concentration of this compound in the blood is increased in individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Its concentrations are also high in other diseases, most of which primarily affect the heart and kidney. In all cases, the researchers state that a significant correlation between increased plasma levels of endothelin-1 and the seriousness of the disorder has been observed.

“Information obtained from these studies will be important for understanding the basic mechanisms that cause diabetes-related cardiac effects, as well as aid in the development of new therapeutic strategies to treat diabetic patients,” Dr. Judd said. “It’s hoped that such therapies will dramatically decrease the cardiovascular related deaths in the diabetic population.”