THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIABETES AND HEART DISEASE HAS FINALLY BEEN FOUND.

Researchers at UC Davis, have finally teased from their research the very important nexus between diabetes and heart disease.  

It is well known, that those who have diabetes in the long run also are at much higher risk of developing heart disease.  But until know the reason why had eluded scientists. 

What the new research has uncovered, is that when sugars in the blood are very high, a biological pathway is activated that causes irregular heartbeats.  

Such arrhythmia, which is linked to heart failure and even cardiac death, is in essence created by the hyperglycemia. 

In the US, studies by the Heart Association have determined that two thirds of diabetes sufferers die from heart disease or stroke, so that the link between the two diseases could finally offer scientists the tools to produce medication that will halt this process. 

The research involved detailed molecular analysis in both rat and human tissues. That showed how the myocytes, or cells of the heart muscle tissue, reacted to high glucose exposure.  The ensuing arrhythmias were also mapped using optical imaging, in hearts that had been isolated from the chest cavity of the live rats. 

What they found was that even moderate, but especially high levels of glucose in the blood, which is what defines diabetics, triggered the release of a sugar molecule, called O-GlcNac, in heart muscle cells which then binds to a protein called CaMKII.  CaMKII regulates normal calcium levels in the blood, and the electrical activity in the heart which both affect the pumping of the heart. 

What was observed was that when the O-GlcNAc caused CaMKII to overactivate, arrhythia ensued almost immediately. 

When the CaMKII protein was inhibited, the arrhythmias did not manifest at all. 

In addition, the study revealed that when analyzing the brain and heart of a deceased diabetic, the tissues revealed high levels of O-GlcNAc-modified CaMKII.  Those patient who had died of diabetes induced heart failure, had the highest levels of all. 

The medicines that could be developed to inhibit the overactivation of CaMKII could also prevent the damage diabetes causes other organs and tissues, namely the kidneys, nervous system and the eye. 

Source : MNT / 10.3.13