When doctors talk about obesity and type 2 diabetes, they often focus on blood sugar levels, body weight, and cholesterol.
Yet one of the greatest dangers of these conditions is the damage they cause to blood vessels. This damage can quietly develop over many years and eventually lead to heart attacks, strokes, and other serious health problems.
Scientists have long been trying to understand why blood vessels become unhealthy in people with metabolic diseases. Now, a new study led by researchers at the University of Zurich and their collaborators in Italy has identified an unexpected target. The answer may lie in a thin layer of fat that surrounds our arteries and veins.
This layer, known as perivascular fat, was once thought to be little more than cushioning around blood vessels. Researchers now understand that it behaves like a highly active organ. It constantly exchanges chemical messages with nearby blood vessels and helps regulate blood flow and inflammation.
Under healthy conditions, this communication system works smoothly. The surrounding fat helps blood vessels remain flexible and responsive. However, obesity and type 2 diabetes can dramatically change the behavior of these fat cells.
The fat becomes inflamed and begins storing fats differently. It also releases chemicals that make blood vessels less able to relax and more prone to damage. These changes can trigger the early stages of vascular disease, increasing the risk of serious cardiovascular problems later in life.
The researchers wanted to go deeper and understand what controls these harmful changes. Instead of focusing on individual genes, they studied epigenetics. Epigenetics involves chemical markers that sit on proteins associated with DNA. These markers help determine which genes are active and which are silent.
You can think of genes as instructions stored inside every cell. Epigenetic signals act like switches that tell the cell which instructions to follow. Changes in these switches can alter how cells behave without changing the genetic code itself.
The research team from the University of Zurich, University Hospital Zurich, and the University of Pisa tested drugs known as BET protein inhibitors. These medicines affect proteins that read epigenetic signals and control the activity of many genes at once.
Experiments using mice and human tissue produced encouraging results. The drugs shifted the genetic activity of the perivascular fat away from inflammation. As a result, the fat released fewer harmful substances. Blood vessels surrounded by the treated fat became healthier and relaxed more easily.
The scientists also identified a major player in this process, an enzyme called hexokinase 2. This enzyme has an important role in sugar metabolism. When it becomes too active in perivascular fat, it encourages the fat cells to store more fat and release inflammatory signals that can injure blood vessels.
Reducing the activity of hexokinase 2 helped restore healthier behavior in the fat tissue and improved the function of nearby blood vessels.
According to study leader Professor Francesco Paneni, this approach represents a different way of thinking about disease treatment. Instead of waiting until problems such as high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol appear, doctors may one day intervene earlier by changing the tissue processes that contribute to blood vessel damage.
The findings were published in the journal Cell Reports and suggest that epigenetic therapies could eventually complement current treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The The study highlights the growing importance of epigenetics in understanding chronic diseases. It shows that fat surrounding blood vessels is not merely passive tissue but an active participant in vascular health.
By changing the molecular signals that guide this tissue’s behavior, researchers were able to improve blood vessel function in laboratory experiments. Because the work was conducted in mice and human tissue samples rather than patients, further research is essential.
Still, the findings suggest that future treatments could target disease processes much earlier and potentially lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people living with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about top foods to love for a stronger heart, and why oranges may help fight obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
For more health information, please see recent studies about simple guide to a 7-day diabetes meal plan, and why you should add black beans to your plate.
Source: University of Zurich.
