Diabetes Research

1. Role of advanced glycation end products for the development and progression of diabetes associated atherosclerosis and renal disease.
2. Does abnormal liver blood flow cause diabetes in patients with high blood pressure?

1.

Researcher(s):
Karin Jandeleit-Dahm, Terri Allen and Josephine Forbes, Danielle Alberti Centre for Diabetic Complications, The Baker Heart Research Institute.

Title:
Role of advanced glycation end products for the development and progression of diabetes associated atherosclerosis and renal disease.

Aim:
The aim of this proposal is to find new treatments to prevent and/or regress atherosclerosis, heart and kidney disease in diabetes thus reducing disability and death in diabetic patients, particularly in the elderly.

Summary:
Diabetes is associated with large and small blood vessel (macro- and microvascular) disease leading to complications including heart disease, kidney disease, stroke and gangrene. These vascular complications remain the major cause of the increased rate of disability and death in diabetic patients, particularly in the elderly.

The proposed studies will determine if interventions that reduce the amount of glucose that sticks to proteins known as “glycation” can prevent or reverse the vascular complications in diabetes. We have developed a good model of diabetic atherosclerosis that closely resembles the situation seen in human diabetes, the diabetic apolipoprotein E knockout mouse. Furthermore, we have unique access to drugs that inhibit this glycation process.

2.

Researcher(s):
Dr Chris O'Callaghan, Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre.

Title:
Does abnormal liver blood flow cause diabetes in patients with high blood pressure?

Aim:
To identify the cause of the metabolic syndrome (hyperinsulinaemia, impaired insulin clearance, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, impaired fibrinolysis etc.)

Summary:
Most heart attacks are caused by well-known risk factors for cardiovascular disease - including hypertension, high cholesterol levels and diabetes. Incredibly, these risk factors frequently occur in individual patients - and just as incredibly, some manoeuvres, such as exercise, dieting and some types of medications, can simultaneously correct each of these defects.

We are investigating a novel hypothesis, developed in our laboratory, that the metabolic disorders that cause heart attacks are ultimately caused by reduced blood flow to the liver.