In a new study, researchers found that there is a connection between high levels of the gastrointestinal hormone GIP in the blood and an elevated risk of heart disease.
The research was conducted by a team from Lund University and Skåne University Hospital in Sweden.
It is well known that the intestinal hormones GIP and GLP-1 are important for insulin production in the pancreas.
They form in the intestines as we eat, and regulate the body’s insulin production, nutrient uptake, appetite, and energy use.
This has made them important therapeutic targets for treating high blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Treatment with drugs that stimulate the release of GLP-1 has, in addition to lowering blood sugar, also been shown to be protective against heart disease.
However, more and more studies are indicating that GIP, or direct stimulation of the GIP receptor can, on the contrary, have negative heart effects and lead to heart disease.
In the study, the researchers have used data and blood samples from two large population studies—the Malmö Diet Cancer Study in Sweden and the Botnia Study in Finland—to study the association between GIP and GLP-1 levels and prognosis for cardiovascular disease and premature death.
The study included 8051 people, and about 5 percent of them had diabetes.
They found that physiologically high levels of GIP were linked to a 30% increased risk of death due to heart disease, and a 20% increased risk of premature death in general; compared to those who did not have high GIP levels.
The team also showed that genetically elevated GIP was linked to heart disease, suggesting that there may be a causal relationship.
However, GLP-1 levels were not strongly associated with mortality or heart disease.
The team says as many diabetes patients are treated with drugs that indirectly raise GIP levels in the blood, it is important to perform additional studies to find out what is behind these epidemiological findings.
The lead author of the study is Martin Magnusson, a senior consultant in cardiology at Skåne University Hospital.
The study is published in Diabetologia.
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