The INFLAMED Study V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
INFlammatory, proAtherogenic and MEtabolic Disorders in cardiovascular disease
IRAS ID
328287
Contact name
Robin Choudhury
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Patients with diabetes have a higher risk of heart attack and worse outcomes. While high glucose levels seem to drive this risk, glucose-lowering medicines do not reduce the risk. Work by Professor Choudhury’s group has shown that high glucose levels lead to re-programming of a type of white blood cell involved in processes such as inflammation, that lead to narrowing of the blood vessels in the heart and consequently heart attack. Specifically, high glucose makes cells in the bone marrow change the way they read their DNA, making them more likely to cause harm and less able to repair damage.
In parallel, there is a growing body of work linking age-related DNA mutations that occur in bone marrow stem cells with increased risk of heart disease. There is also evidence that bone marrow stem cell clones have offspring which only contribute to the platelet lineage (platelet-biased); platelets are essential to the clotting of blood. Professor Mead’s group has pilot data detecting these platelet-biased clones in the blood of elderly hospital inpatients, and hypothesise that they are associated with heart disease due to the role of platelets.
We aim to determine how common these related phenomena are in patients who present with heart disease, with and without diabetes, using tests that we and others have developed which we will refine to make them easier to use and more affordable. These tests include analysis of genetic material from blood and for some patients who undergo cardiac surgery, bone marrow from the breastbone. We will also look at how patterns of blood glucose levels affect these processes. Lastly, we seek to characterise the pattern of blood vessel narrowing in the heart that seem to affect patients with diabetes and to understand whether it relates to the phenomena we are aiming to describe.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/YH/0269
Date of REC Opinion
16 Dec 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion