People of South Asian descent develop heart disease at an earlier rate, and a new study from Canada suggests that this may be due in part to poorer repair of blood vessel damage.
Cardiovascular disease affects the heart and blood vessels and may require bypass surgery or other treatments.
Researchers have previously found that people from the Indian subcontinent, including people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and more than 50 other South Asian descent groups, who make up a quarter of the world’s population, are about 5 to 50% more likely than white patients in Europe. It was estimated that he would develop cardiovascular disease 10 years earlier. This means that the mortality rate after a heart attack is higher.
In Monday’s issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers from Canada, the United States, and Ireland found that South Asian patients with heart disease or diabetes have fewer regenerative and repair cells in their blood vessels than white patients. Reporting.
Study co-author Dr. Subodh Verma, a cardiac surgeon at St. “This suggests that there is something.” He completed his PhD in Toronto and is a professor at the University of Toronto.
The study looked at 60 self-identified South Asian adults admitted to primary care or cardiology outpatient clinics in the Toronto area and those with at least one risk factor for heart disease, proven cardiovascular disease, or diabetes. A comparison was made of 60 European Caucasians with established
Significant decrease in stem cells
David Hess, an affiliated scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital and a professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Western University in London, Ont., examines blood cells from patient samples and uses a variety of markers to identify important stem cells. I found a way to find out. cell.
“We looked at three different types of stem cells, and the two most important types of stem cells were significantly reduced in South Asian subjects compared to European Caucasian subjects,” Hess said. said. “This may suggest or indicate that they have a reduced ability to repair and regenerate blood vessels in response to diabetes.”
When Verma, Hess, and their coauthors considered risk factors such as weight, age, gender, and obesity in their analysis, they found that the repair process remained flawed.
Dr. Jaydeep Patel, a Canadian preventive cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, who was not involved in the latest study, said he expects atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in the South Asian population in the United States by 2023. was a member of the expert committee on the management of
“Taken together, the results of this study remain novel,” Patel said in an email, praising the authors’ efforts.
“The cardiovascular risk clock is accelerating”
Professor Patel said that, beyond the small sample size, a major limitation of the study was that it did not include healthy participants, so the presence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or other risk factors may not be present in stem cells. It is unclear whether this would have a different impact on the
Further research is needed to prove that low levels of stem cells lead to poor blood vessels and increased risk of heart complications.
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At this time, it is important for everyone to be aware of their risk factors, including family history and acquired risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, low physical activity, high stress, high blood pressure, and high blood pressure, Verma said. Ta.
“The cardiovascular risk clock is moving forward for South Asians,” he said.
Professor Patel added female-specific risk factors to the list, including polycystic ovary syndrome, gestational hypertension and gestational diabetes.
Both doctors suggested that people at higher risk need to be more careful.
The study authors next want to address whether the biological differences they discovered can be used to identify people at risk earlier and see if there are specific treatments that can be administered earlier. I believe.
This study was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
