The Effect of Type 1 Diabetes on Pan-Arterial Vascular Function and Insulin Sensitivity in Humans

Overview

Arterial vascular disease is the major cause of morbidity and mortality for Type 1 diabetic patients (DM1). Metabolic insulin resistance (metIR), even in the absence of hyperglycemia, conveys a 1.5 to 3-fold increased CVD risk in the general population. Metabolic Insulin Resistance (MetIR) has been repeatedly shown to be prevalent in adults and adolescents with DM1. MetIR in obesity and DM2 are accompanied by vascular insulin resistance (vasIR) which is characterized by impaired vasodilatory action of insulin on resistance or microvascular vessels. VasIR has not been systematically studied in DM1. We hypothesize that in young adults DM1 impairs both baseline and insulin-responsive vascular function throughout the arterial vasculature.

In our study, 20 healthy control subjects will be compared to 20 DM1 patients (18-40 yrs). We will assess function in conduit (pulse wave velocity-PWV, flow-mediated dilation-FMD and augmentation index-AI), resistance (post-ischemic flow velocity-PIFV) and heart and skeletal muscle microvascular (contrast enhanced ultrasound-CEU) vessels before and after 2 hrs of a euglycemic insulin clamp.

Conditions

Eligibility