News & Research

    The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, Madison, Wisconsin

In vivo imaging of cerebrovascular structure and function in metabolic syndrome

General Research Subject: Insulin Resistance Pre Diabetes

Focus: Exercise

Type of Grant: Innovation

Project Start Date: January 1, 2012

Project End Date: December 31, 2013

Research Description

What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?

This ADA grant is focused on the brain circulation. Our laboratory focuses on determining mechanisms of blood flow regulation, and how this regulation is altered by pre-diabetes. Our newest data seem to tell us that patients with pre-diabetes cannot respond to a need for increased brain blood flow. Vascular dysfunction is typically not diagnosed until middle-age or later; and is the culmination of decades of complex interactions between genetic, lifestyle, and environmental inputs. Our research tests pre-diabetes in young adults without the complicating factors of aging or other cardiovascular disease. In some ways, this research echoes the phrase "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". In other words, it's easier to keep the brain circulation healthy than to try to fix what's broken. We believe this area is critical to study as young "healthy" people transition from health to disease. Earlier detection of vascular problems may open a treatment window where vascular disease is more likely to be reversible. My research program is designed to fill this scientific gap in knowledge specifically on the brain circulation.  

If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?

Stroke is a big problem in pre-diabetes, aging, and diabetes. Often, as patients, we first see a physician when we have a problem with brain blood flow-after a lot of damage has been done. We are trying to understand the earliest changes in your body's ability to maintain proper blood flow to the brain-twenty years before you might detect a problem and see a doctor. We use state-of-the-art imaging (eg MRI scans) to measure whether your brain blood vessels are getting smaller or disappearing. An important study is to test whether your brain can respond to stressors of everyday life in order to increase blood flow when your brain needs it. Thus, we will stress your body to see if it maintains the ability to respond to stress. If it doesn't, as our early data suggest, then we can use these findings to develop strategies or treatments to improve your brain blood flow.

Why is it important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play in your research efforts?

Scientifically, pre-diabetes is fascinating as it presents in so many ways across different patients. Personally, some of my family members are struggling with diabetes and related problems, which takes its toll emotionally, medically, and financially. It is important to me that I feel our research program is a vital cog in the international team of care-givers, scientists, and doctors who try every day to make the lives of diabetics better.

In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?

Since diabetes is such a complex disease, I envision the most fruitful approach will be multifaceted. We need people who understand the psychology of having diabetes, the medical aspects, the new treatments, the prevention, as well as national health care policy. It will take grass roots efforts like church based diet and exercise community programs, to visionary leadership from the world's experts on the medical front of diabetes research.