Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Patients with diabetes are at increased risk of microvascular complications, which develop when the body's small blood vessels become diseased. One of the most common problems results when wounds fail to heal properly, which can lead to ulcers, chronic infections, and in the most serious cases, limb amputations.
Now investigators from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have discovered that a molecule called PGC-1alpha -- which has previously been shown to spur the growth of blood vessels in muscle -- has the opposite effect in the endothelial cells of patients with diabetes, impairing blood vessel growth and leading to dangerous vascular complications.
Reported on-line today in the journal Cell Metabolism, the new findings not only help explain the molecular mechanisms underlying microvascular disease in diabetes patients, they also suggest that because PGC-1alpha has opposing effects in different cell types, its role as a potential new therapeutic target should be pursued with caution.
http://www.sciencecodex.com/researc...t_risk_for_microvascular_complications-127330
Now investigators from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have discovered that a molecule called PGC-1alpha -- which has previously been shown to spur the growth of blood vessels in muscle -- has the opposite effect in the endothelial cells of patients with diabetes, impairing blood vessel growth and leading to dangerous vascular complications.
Reported on-line today in the journal Cell Metabolism, the new findings not only help explain the molecular mechanisms underlying microvascular disease in diabetes patients, they also suggest that because PGC-1alpha has opposing effects in different cell types, its role as a potential new therapeutic target should be pursued with caution.
http://www.sciencecodex.com/researc...t_risk_for_microvascular_complications-127330