Exploring novel mechanisms for cardiovascular complications in diabetes

Bakgrund:Diabetes is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Subjects with diabetes remain at an increased risk for CVD in spite of statin treatment and well-controlled glucose levels. Accordingly, other disease mechanisms must be of importance for CVD complications in diabetes. We have preliminary findings suggesting that the increased CVD risk in diabetes is due to a combination of increased vascular injury and impaired capacity to repair this injury.

Målsättning:The aims of this project are to (1) test the hypothesis that cardiovascular complications are caused by an imbalance between vascular injury and repair and (2) develop novel treatments to promote vascular repair.

Arbetsplan:To validate this hypothesis, we will (1) identify how biomarkers reflecting tissue injury, repair and autoimmunity are associated with risk for development of cardiovascular events in prospective population and patient cohorts. We will determine if these associations differ in subjects with or without diabetes. (2) Use cellular and animal models to investigate the functional importance of pathophysiological processes identified by the clinical biomarker studies. (3) Test the efficacy of novel therapies targeting these processes in experimental models.

We have access to several large prospective study cohorts that together includes around 2000 subjects with diabetes, well characterized biobank material, advanced biomarker platforms, appropriate animal models and well established molecular and immunological assays.

Betydelse:The project will identify new possibilities for improved clinical cardiovascular risk prediction as well as development of novel and more effective therapies in subjects with diabetes.