Study in Circulation Research details how diabetes drives ather...((e.g. weightlifting thickens bone). ....),Health

Inflammation is blood vessels is one of the main drivers of atherosclerosis, and diabetes makes it much worse, said Jun-ichi Abe, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor with the Aab Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and a study author. Our study argues that a pathway surrounding a key signaling enzyme both protects the heart in normal cases, and is sabotaged by the chemicals produced in diabetes. We believe we have found a new therapeutic target for the treatment of diabetes-related damage to blood vessels.

In people without diabetes, fast blood flow triggers an enzyme called extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5 (ERK-5). ERK5 in turn signals endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) to produce more nitric oxide and dilate blood vessels. It also activates Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-g (PPARg), both of which block the ability of pro-inflammatory immune cells to home in on and adhere to diseased portions of blood vessels.

Past studies had shown diabetes to worsen atherosclerosis, but its exact link to related inflammation had remained unclear. The current results provides the first mechanistic description of how diabetes takes away the ability of fast blood flow force to protect blood vessels, arguing that it does so by interfering with ERK5 and its signaling partners.

Abes team showed that molecules called advanced glycation end products (AGEs), produced in greater levels by patients with diabetes, interfere with ERK5 cardioprotection. Glycation reactions cause the release of oxidizing side products like hydrogen peroxide (H202) that drive free radical production, inflammation and cell damage in many diseases.

Researchers found that AGEs and H202 sabotage ERK5 by encouraging the attachment to it of a small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO), a protein tag used by
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