It is our goal to determine whether exercise training attenuates insulin resistance and restores insulin-mediated perfusion to the heart and to skeletal muscle, leading to improved cardiac function and exercise performance. Data from our two research teams suggest that the cardiac and skeletal muscle microvascular dysfunction present in people with type 2 diabetes contributes to limitations in cardiac and skeletal muscle function associated with impaired functional exercise capacity (a major predictor of CV and all-cause mortality). Insulin action is a potent predictor of the functional exercise capacity impairment in type 2 diabetes. The exact relationship between insulin action, cardiac and muscle dysfunction, cardiac and skeletal muscle perfusion and decreased functional exercise capacity in type 2 diabetes remains unclear.
The goal of this two-site grant proposal is to determine the role of the decreased insulin-mediated muscle perfusion found in type 2 diabetes in contributing to the development of cardiac and skeletal muscle dysfunction and subsequent functional exercise impairment. In addition, it is also our goal to determine whether exercise training attenuates insulin resistance and restores insulin-mediated perfusion to the heart and to skeletal muscle, leading to improved cardiac function and exercise performance.