Common protein form related to heart and metabolic diseases: study

New York: One form of protein, clusterin, has been badociated with many facets of the risk of cardiometabolic syndrome by its actions in the liver, suggests a new research study. In addition, it is linked to an increased risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, harmful cholesterol levels and hepatic steatosis. Cardiometabolic syndrome (CMS) is a group of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

These conditions include high blood pressure, hyperglycemia, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

"Our goal was to discover new cell-derived factors in adipose tissue that impact cardiometabolic disease, specifically to identify those important for maintaining adipose tissue structure, called the extracellular matrix, which becomes dysfunctional. in obesity., "said David Bradley, an badistant professor at Ohio State University in the United States.

For the study, the team included a small group of 54 obese patients and 18 lean patients. The findings, published in the journal Diabetes Care, have shown that clusterin, which is overproduced by the fat cells of the obese, is strongly related to insulin resistance, the study said.

Insulin resistance is a major cause of type 2 diabetes and obese patients usually have both metabolic and cardiovascular complications.

"Fat cells increase clusterin production as they grow into obesity.Clusterin could be a biomarker of the disease, as well as a therapeutic target to potentially prevent this disease," said lead researcher Willa Hsueh, professor at the university.

"This collaborative research helps to better understand the importance of clusterin in the" cardiometabolic syndrome ", which could eventually lead to the development of new treatments for this potentially fatal badociation of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, "said K. Craig Kent, dean at the college.

CMS, which affects about 25% of the world's population, is now recognized as a disease entity by the World Health Organization and the American Society of Endocrinology.

The study states that translational research involving mouse models is needed to learn more about the impact of the cluster on each of the components of the content management system and on the possibility of administering clusterin inhibitory antibodies to the CMS.