Insulin treatment favours atherosclerotic plaque stability

Glycaemic control reduces the cardiovascular complications associated with diabetes, though the mechanisms by which this occurs remain unclear. Schuyler and colleagues postulate that this may be due to enhanced plaque stability; increases in the size of atherosclerotic plaques are associated with diabetes, which, when larger, are more prone to rupture. Using diabetic apoE-/- mice, they found that treatment with insulin resulted in attenuation of the increase in size of intimal lesions, alongside inhibition of the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9, which is known to increase with diabetes and is involved in plaque destabilisation. Schuyler et al. (2011) Journal of Endocrinology 210 37–46.

Read the full article at: DOI:10.1530/JOE-10-0420.

For a commentary on this paper, see Mulder (2011).