BALTIMORE, MD – A detailed study of heart muscle function in
mice has uncovered evidence to explain why exercise is
beneficial for heart function in type 2 diabetes. The research
team, led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine, found that greater amounts of fatty acids used by
the heart during stressful conditions like exercise can
counteract the detrimental effects of excess glucose and improve
the diabetic heart’s pumping ability in several ways. The
findings also shed light on the complex chain of events that
lead to diabetic cardiomyopathy, a form of heart failure that is
a life-threatening complication of type 2 diabetes. The study,
described in an article published in the journal Diabetes, was
conducted in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes, and focused on
the exchange of energy within heart muscle cells. The
researchers looked at the impact of glucose and fatty acids,
which are different types of “fuel” that provide energy to the
cells—and how those affect heart muscle function