Washington:
A new study has provided insight into glucagon’s role in diabetic heart
disease. The UT Southwestern-led study revealed the hormone glucagon’s
importance to the development of insulin resistance and cardiac dysfunction
during Type 2 diabetes, presenting opportunities to develop new therapies for
diabetic diseases of the heart muscle.
These findings
might provide an advanced understanding of how diabetes drugs benefit heart
function, especially considering cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of
death in diabetics.
“This
investigation found that inhibiting glucagon action has potent anti-diabetic
effects. This treatment reduces the potential negative effects that fats have
on tissues,” said Dr Philipp Scherer, Director of the Touchstone.
The study built
on decades of discoveries at the Touchstone Center, first directed by Dr Roger
Unger.
“Dr Unger’s work
established an important role for glucagon as a driving force for
hyperglycemia, or excess glucose in the bloodstream, during the onset of
diabetes. Our studies suggest that glucagon also contributes to cardiac
dysfunction by altering lipid utilization in the heart,” said Dr William
Holland, former Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine who completed and
published the work while a member of the Touchstone Center. “By blocking
glucagon action [in mice], we revealed unexpected effects of glucagon, most
notably on glucose uptake into skeletal and cardiac muscle.”
Dr Unger first
identified glucagon as a pancreatic hormone that raises blood sugar levels,
having the opposite effect of insulin. A UTSW faculty member since 1956, Dr
Unger developed a test in the mid-1950s to measure concentrations of glucagon.
The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that about 30.3 million people -
or 9.4 percent of the American population - had diabetes in the latest reported
year, 2015. That included 7.2 million undiagnosed or unreported adult cases.
That same year, diabetes was the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S.,
with more than 79,500 fatalities.
The latest
investigation tackled a conundrum in the field of diabetes research.
Glucagon-containing agonists have been studied as a diabetes treatment in
animal models, as they enhance weight loss.
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