The link between a high-fat diet and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease is well known, but what is that relationship and how does it work?
Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes worldwide, causes cells, including those in the heart, to become unresponsive to the hormone insulin. This unresponsiveness impairs the function of heart cells and leads to diabetic heart disease, doubling the risk of heart failure and death. Heart disease is the leading cause of death from diabetes.
“But I don't understand how that happens.” Jessica PragerAssistant Professor VTC Fralin Biomedical Research Institute And that Vascular and Cardiac Research Center“How do heart cells become insulin insensitive and how does that lead to heart disease? In my lab, we are investigating how a high-fat diet affects cardiomyocytes, the muscle that makes the heart contract, causing insulin resistance and ultimately damage.”
Prager and her lab will study that connection with the help of a new five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Pfleger is also an assistant professor. Department of Biological Sciences Virginia Tech Faculty of ScienceHe thinks the key lies in a protein called REDD1, whose role in the heart has not been studied, and he suspects that a high-fat diet prevents the protein from fulfilling its role in helping heart cells maintain their insulin sensitivity.
Normally, the pancreas produces insulin, which is essential for cells to take up blood sugar, or glucose, and convert it into energy.
In type 2 diabetes, the body becomes resistant to insulin, hindering the ability of cells to produce the energy they need. Unused glucose builds up in the blood and weakens cells. In heart cells, the lack of energy can affect the heart and sometimes be fatal.
Doctors treat this type of diabetes by managing blood sugar levels and administering insulin, which targets downstream symptoms of the disease but has limited effectiveness and does not address the underlying causes of the disease.
“We're trying to control blood sugar and other downstream effects, but that's hard to do because we don't fully understand what's going on with insulin resistance,” said Prager, who aims to identify the cause of insulin resistance and believes a link between a high-fat diet and the function of the REDD1 protein is key.
“We predict that restoring function of this protein will restore insulin sensitivity and prevent cardiac dysfunction,” Prager said. “Investigating these relationships may be key to developing new treatments for type 2 diabetes and diabetic heart disease.”
In parallel with this work, Dr. Prager and her lab are investigating additional ways to restore insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetes. Seal Innovation Fund of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.
