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High basic fibroblast growth factor increases CHD risk in Type 2 diabetics
8 March 2010
MedWire News: Elevated plasma basic fibroblast growth factor immunoreactivity (bFGF-IR) increases coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in men with Type 2 diabetes, report researchers.
“bFGF is a potent mitogen in endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells that is released after endothelial injury and is capable of inducing smooth muscle cell migration and proliferation important in neointima formation,” explain Mark Zimering (Department of Veterans Affairs New Jersey Health Care System, Lyons, USA) and colleagues.
They add: “Plasma bFGF is low or undetectable in healthy subjects, but increases in microalbuminuric adult Type 2 diabetes mellitus and in coronary artery disease.”
In this study, Zimering and team investigated whether elevated bFGF-IR at baseline was predictive for cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular accident, amputation, cardiovascular death, coronary, cerebrovascular, or peripheral revascularization, and inoperable coronary artery disease) in 399 patients with Type 2 diabetes (96% male) who were followed-up for 6 years.
The participants were aged 59 years on average and had a mean glycated hemoglobin level of 9.5% and diabetes duration of 11 years at baseline. The team compared individuals with a bFGF concentration of 0–50 pg/ml with those with a concentration of more than 50 pg/ml (elevated).
Writing in the journal Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental, the team reports that they observed a borderline significant association between bFGF-IR and the combined outcome of cardiovascular disease.
Moreover, CHD (myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, inoperable coronary artery disease, or cardiovascular death) specifically was significantly associated with bFGF-IR level at baseline.
Following adjustment for clinical risk factors, high bFGF, a prior macrovascular event, and longer duration of diabetes were all associated with a shorter time to first CHD event with hazard ratios of 1.01, 3.55, and 1.04, respectively.
“The current findings suggest that increased plasma bFGF was associated with a substantially increased 5-year risk for CHD occurrence in older men with advanced Type 2 diabetes mellitus,” conclude Zimering et al.
“Although the association demonstrated here does not prove causality, it suggests a novel mechanism in which bFGF may act via the general circulation to contribute to a substantially increased risk for CHD, the leading cause of death in adults with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.”
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