Cellular inflammation precursor to heart disease

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Feb, 2005

Endocrinologists are providing one more link in the growing chain of evidence pointing to chronic cellular inflammation as the precursor of heart disease and diabetes. University at Buffalo (N.Y.) researchers have shown for the first time that circulating mononuclear cells--the body's monocytes (the largest type of white blood cell) and lymphocytes--exist in a proinflammatory state in obese persons known to be at increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, or both.

"These cells are creating a lot of nuisance in the obese," notes Paresh Dandona, head of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. "They enter the artery and set up atherosclerosis. They activate fat cells to produce more proinflammatory factors. They interfere with insulin signaling, causing insulin resistance. They even enter the brain."

The good news, Dandona indicates, is that, based on these findings, the status of mononuclear cells from one blood sample could serve as an easy early-warning system for the risk of developing insulin resistance and circulatory problems. Results showed that measures of proinflammatory factors were significantly higher in blood samples from obese subjects than from those of average weight, while levels of factors that normally inhibit inflammation were much lower.

"This proinflammatory state may contribute to insulin resistances," says Dandona, "because the cytokines produced may interfere with insulin action." The index of insulin resistance in the obese patients was nearly three times higher, on average, than that of the normal subjects. To remedy the inflammation, persons either must change their diet, take medication, or both.